


Yet Another RWBY Fluff Fic

by Octopus_Straps



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU backstory Blake, Ace Ruby, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aromantic Ren, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Mostly Fluff, Multi, Polyamory, Rare Pairings, Slow Burn, Wildly variable chapter sizes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 05:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 23,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9220799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Octopus_Straps/pseuds/Octopus_Straps
Summary: Hello all.  Hope you enjoy my story.  I'd love to hear what you think, reader feedback is a hell of a drug.  Feel free to bother me at https://octopus-straps.tumblr.com/





	1. Tag

A young woman sat on a stump in a forest clearing, red leaves drifting by in the late Autumn breeze. Her skirt rustled as she bounced her leg up and down. She scanned the treeline, hardly noticing how her chosen seating had begun to make her ache, or the way the red metal of the object magnetically attached to the back of her belt was biting into the soft wood as she moved. _'This time,'_ she thought. _'_ _this time she’s not sneaking up on me.'_   She had arrived in the clearing a full hour ago. Despite herself, she had managed not to move from her chosen spot for the entire time. She was a full fifty meters from any sort of reasonable hiding place. There was _no way_ she was being caught unaware this time.

She gave her leg an accusing glance. It stopped moving, then promptly started bouncing again a moment later. After another fruitless scan of the trees, she threw her arms up in a stretch, letting out a sigh and flopping forward. She hung her head between her knees for a moment before bolting upright. She thought she’d heard-

“Tag. You’re it.”

She spun to see another woman standing behind her, laughter in her amber eyes. “You were doing pretty good there. I was starting to think I’d have to move while you were paying attention.”

“Blake! How! I-” She sputtered as Blake snickered behind her hand. “Patience isn’t your strong suit, Ruby. I don’t think outwaiting me is a good bet.”

Ruby glowered. “I heard you coming this time! That has to count for something!” She crossed her arms, watching Blake for a reaction to the news that she had, in fact, known that Blake was there before she had been tagged. True, it had been for less than a second, but that was still an improvement, darn it!

Blake didn’t seem impressed. “Doesn’t mean much unless you use it.” Blake smiled to take the sting from her words. “If I had been a Grimm…” She left Ruby’s imagination to do the rest.

Ruby scoffed. “Yeah, right. Grimm aren’t nearly as sneaky as you, Blake.”

Blake’s smile fell. “To hear Port tell it, we don’t know the half of what the Grimm are capable of.” She moved towards the trees, brushing past Ruby without meeting her eyes. “Besides,” She paused. “Huntresses don’t only fight Grimm, Ruby. You know that.”

Sobered by the sudden change in Blake’s mood, Ruby trailed after her. “I guess. But if you had been a Grimm, I would have totally kicked your butt!”

Blake walked on in silence. Ruby was used to Blake’s spells of silence by now. Contrary to her first impression, Blake was quite talkative when it was just the two of them, but she would sometimes lapse into a quiet funk where conversation was met only with glares and terse replies. Ruby still wasn’t sure what to do when it happened, but she didn’t want to leave her new friend alone, so she walked in silence. Or at least, relative quiet. Their path was laden with layers of fallen leaves, and Ruby kicked up clouds of them as she walked, savoring the earthy smell. She caught Blake watching out of the corner of her eye and smiled.

Busy forging a new path through some bushes, Ruby was surprised to hear Blake break the silence first. “How do you do that?” Ruby let go of the branch she was holding, sending it swinging back towards Blake, who sidestepped it with ease.

“How do you do _that_? Ruby responded. “Wait, do what?”

Blake grinned. “Years of practice. Where are we going, anyway? You wandered off our usual path a while ago.”

Ruby’s face lit up. “Ooh! I never got to tell you ‘cause you were being all quiet, but I found this really neat spot while I was looking for a place to wait for you.” She was bouncing on the balls of her feet. “It didn’t work for a waiting place because there were so many trees, but it was soooo cool!” Grabbing Blake by the hand, she shouted, “C’mon, it was this way!” and dove into the underbrush, practically dragging a grinning Blake behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all. Hope you enjoy my story. I'd love to hear what you think, reader feedback is a hell of a drug. Feel free to bother me at https://octopus-straps.tumblr.com/


	2. The Importance of Cookies

Nearly an hour later, Blake was far less pleased. The shadows were growing long, and they needed to make their way back if they wanted dinner. “We’ve been by this rock twice now, Ruby.” Ruby paused. “I know, just give me a minute. I just gotta turn around, that’s all.” Ruby pivoted on her heel and began marching in the opposite direction. “Ruby.” Ruby stopped and turned to face Blake, who was rubbing her eyes. “What are we looking for?” 

“I can’t tell you, It’ll ruin the surprise!” 

“There won’t be any surprise if we never find it.” 

Ruby considered this. “I guess. There’s this waterfall, and a tree, and it was really pretty…” She trailed off, kicking at a stone on the ground. 

“Let's look for just a little longer then.” 

Ruby nodded and continued on. Blake lingered for a moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Her bow twitched, and she smiled.

They walked together for a time. Ruby simply wandered, following Blake in the shadow of a rocky outcropping, dwarfed by the huge trees of forever fall. Blake watched Ruby’s face as they walked, waiting for a sign of recognition. Ruby heard the stream before she saw it. Her eyes went wide, and she shouted “Blake! Look looklooklooklook!” before disappearing in a flash of rose petals. Blake followed the short distance to the stream as quickly as she could, landing behind Ruby in a crouch. Ruby stood transfixed, staring up into the boughs of a gnarled tree, it’s leaves radiant in the evening sun. The roots were embedded in the cliffside, and a small stream trickled from it’s base where it had worn away the soil, exposing the underside of the root system before spilling down to splash on the rocks below. A light breeze blew past, and the ancient tree creaked and shuddered. 

Blake slowly rose and stood beside Ruby, marveling at what they had found together. Their hands brushed against each other. Blake’s twitched, and she pulled it away. It was a long time before either spoke, Ruby breaking the silence first this time. “I don’t think there are going to be any cookies left when we get back.” 

Blake checked her scroll. “There isn’t going to be anything left if we don’t hurry.” 

They waited a moment longer. 

“Some things are more important than cookies.” Blake said. 

Ruby shook her head, grinning. “ _Nothing_ is more important than cookies!” she yelled, her fist in the air. Blake blinked and she was gone, petals drifting to the ground in lazy spirals. She caught one as it went past her face and held it in her palm, breathing in the lingering scent of roses.


	3. Caught

It was well past curfew when Blake finally found her way back to team RWBY’s dorm room.  She was comfortable dodging the night patrols by now.  When she had first arrived she had worried that Beacon’s security might prove troublesome, the school was the origin of some of the greatest fighters Remnant had ever known, after all.  It had quickly become apparent, however, that the standards expected of the students were not at all the same as those expected of the guards.  She had only come close to being caught once.  The ledge by their window being used as a roost by some large birds was not something she had expected, and changing direction mid air was still difficult to do silently.  She was still far from perfect, she reminded herself while watching from the shadows as a patrol went by.  It was just as well that there was a curfew.  She had to keep her other skills sharp somehow.  Ruby was a fast study, but she still had a lot to learn when it came to stealth. 

Tonight she was taking a much safer route; through the front door.  She slid her scroll back into her pocket and glided into the dark room.  Shedding her shoes and sleeve, she made her way toward the bathroom.  She was debating whether a shower was worth the effort when the click of a desk lamp made her freeze, the sudden light stabbing into her eyes, which she promptly squeezed shut.  Silence.  She waited a beat, then turned and opened one eye a crack, pressing her hand over the other one to further preserve her night vision.  Her stomach sank, even as she breathed a sigh of relief and let her arms fall to her sides.  Weiss Schnee was sitting in her sleepwear, glaring daggers over her crossed arms.

Weiss stood and marched up to Blake, placing her hands on her hips with a huff.  “Where exactly have you been?”  Weiss hissed.  When Blake wasn’t forthcoming with an answer, she pressed on.  “It’s over an hour past curfew.  I know you are aware of the regulation, we were both at the opening ceremony when they went over the rules, and Glynda has mentioned it several times since.  What I don’t know,” She paused for emphasis.  “Is why.  If you get caught it will reflect poorly on all of us, you know!”  Weiss’ whisper had risen to a shout.  The snores issuing from Yang’s bunk stopped for a moment, only to resume more loudly after a muffled grunt.  Blake eyed the sheets over Ruby’s bed, listening for a change in the younger sibling’s breathing.  Following Blake’s gaze, Weiss lowered her voice to a carrying whisper.  “I was expecting to deal with this from Yang,”  She jerked her head in the direction of the snoring.  “Or maybe Ruby, but apparently… are you listening?”  Blake had brushed past and pulled her yukata from beneath her pillow.  Giving Weiss a look, she walked over to the bathroom and paused with her hand on the doorknob.  

“It won’t be a problem.”  

Weiss bristled.  “It won’t be a problem?  What do you mean it won’t be a problem?  It’s already a problem!”  

A low moan came from Ruby’s bunk.  “Weiss…  What...”  

“See?”  Weiss hissed.  

Blake rolled her eyes and whispered “It won’t be a problem unless you make it one.” before slipping into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.  

Weiss waited until she heard the sound of the shower running before turning on her heel and stalking back to her desk.  Ruby’s hand flopped out from beneath her canopy of covers, slowly raising the side enough so that one eye was visible.  “Muh.  Weiss?”  

“Go to sleep, Ruby.”  

“Kay.”  She let go of the blanket, letting her hand hang over the edge of the bed.  Weiss climbed into her own bed after shutting off the light.  She lay there, fuming, as Blake finished her shower and found her own bed.  Weiss wouldn’t have noticed if not for the sound of the shower stopping, Blake was so silent.  Weiss opened her mouth to berate her teammate again, but thought better of it.  She settled for rolling over and burying her face in her pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I thought Weiss would ever be caught dead in a pink bathrobe, that's what she would have been wearing.


	4. Breakfast

Breakfast the next morning was quiet at first. Yang had taken to hitting the gym in the mornings of late, Ruby was busy optimizing a stack of muffins on her tray, and Weiss and Blake were pointedly not speaking to each other. At least, Weiss was pointedly not speaking to Blake, and she assumed that Blake was doing the same, nevermind that Blake hardly ever strung two words together this early in the morning. Weiss watched as she sipped her morning tea, closing her eyes to breathe in the fragrant steam, a small smile playing across her face. Her posture relaxed and she drooped forward for a moment before jerking back up, her eyes wide. She sent an accusatory glance at Weiss, who was chewing on a bagel, before going back to her tea.

Weiss decided silence wasn’t working. “Maybe,” she started in her best ‘we can be reasonable about this’ tone, “you wouldn’t be having such trouble staying awake at the breakfast table if you got to bed at a reasonable time.”

Blake’s drowsy cycle snapped at the challenge in Weiss’ tone, her hands balling into fists on the table. “I’m not a morning person.” Blake shot back. She dug into her sausage, hoping Weiss would drop it.

No such luck. “All the more reason for you to get to sleep on time. We have to rely on each other, and I need you to be at your best. That means not coming back…” Weiss glanced past Blake to where team CRDL was whispering among themselves, Sky tossing an egg from one hand to the other. She lowered her voice. “That means not taking risks where our team’s status is concerned.”

Blake’s eyes narrowed.

“Do you understand what I’m saying? If you’re caught it could mean missing classes, which means all of our grades would slip!” Weiss managed to keep her voice to a fierce whisper. “We can’t afford that.”

Blake spoke. “Some of us can’t.”

Weiss blinked. “No, Blake, that’s not… what I meant.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. You didn’t mean to imply that I’m too incompetent not to be caught by the frankly lax night patrol? Or did you not mean to say that your grades are more important than me being able to stay at Beacon?”

“Hey, that’s not fair. And I…” Weiss hesitated. She had shared little of her background with the others. They knew she was a Schnee, that was supposed to be enough. Blake didn’t know that Weiss’ life at Beacon hung from an even thinner thread than her own. Weiss had looked up the scholarship requirements for a free ride at Beacon when she had learned that Blake was relying on one. They were stringent, purely merit based, but still not as strict as the expectations placed on her as a Schnee. “I… didn’t mean it like that.” She finished, poking at her uneaten bagel. Blake didn’t need to know about her family issues. If she had her way, no one would until they were long a thing of the past.

Some of the fire faded from Blake’s eyes as she listened to Weiss stumble vaguely in the direction of an apology. She hadn’t meant to fly off the handle like that. The Schnee heiress just made her hackles rise, especially when she acted so callous. Not for the first time, Blake regretted mentioning her scholarship weeks ago. She had thought it would help to keep the others motivated, a large portion of their grades were team based, after all, but Weiss had taken to bringing it up whenever grades were discussed. Blake didn’t like to be used as a guilting tool and besides, the groups grades had been stellar, well above what was necessary.

“Look.” Blake started, then caught herself. Trying to find a more neutral tone, she started again. “I’m not used to sleeping so early. I walk to help myself focus. I have a lot of trouble sleeping when I’m cooped up.” That was putting it lightly. She started again when Weiss looked like she was about to interject. “It’s been weeks since school started and I haven’t been caught yet. If anything, getting around at night is keeping my skills sharp.” She held Weiss’ gaze, who let out a slow breath and shrugged.

“Fine.” she said, watching Ruby tottering towards their table with an impressive tower of baked sweets. Apparently she hadn’t been satisfied with just muffins. Weiss wasn’t sure how she could even see where she was walking, the tray was stacked so high. “Where did you learn to sneak around like that, anyway?”

Blake smiled, pushing her tray aside. “I don’t think we’ve known each other long enough to exchange tragic backstories, Weiss. You could always go first, I suppose.”

“Ha ha. Ruby, there’s no way you’re going to eat all of that, what were you thinking?”

Ruby set the tray on the table, holding the side of a pastry until she was sure her tower was stable. “Hmmm. Maybe. But I can try!” Plucking a muffin from the top, she sat down and started eating, grabbing another seconds later. Weiss looked as though she was about to complain more, but after checking the time she settled for disapproving silence. For a while they watched Ruby inhale her food. She kept a good pace, but began to flag as she neared the halfway mark. Weiss smirked as ruby eyed a jelly donut, far less pleased with the sweet than she had been.

“Well, I certainly hope-”

“Ah bup-pup-pup!” Ruby cut her off, holding up a hand. She took an enormous bite, jelly dripping down her chin and onto the tabletop. Blake snickered as Weiss froze, staring at the small pile of jelly and crumbs that had built up on the table. Her eye twitched.

“Ruby.” Weiss’ voice was sickly sweet. Ruby was attacking her tower with renewed gusto. “Perhaps you could… not eat like a barbarian?”

Ruby rolled her eyes. Swallowing in a way which made Blake cringe and Weiss grind her teeth, she spoke around a mouthful of donut. “Well I don’t want to make ufs late. You could always helf me.” She waved at her diminishing stack of sweets.

Blake snorted at Weiss’ reaction. She stood and stretched before taking a muffin from the pile with a smile for Ruby. “You owe me one.” Ruby made an “mph” noise around her pastry.

Blake dropped off her tray and walked towards the cafeteria doors, scanning the students eating breakfast and munching on her muffin. She spared a smile for the faunus girl she’d seen Cardin picking on the other day. She’d perked up as Blake passed, eyeing her intently. Blake slowed her walk, unused to the scrutiny. The girl seemed to realize she was staring, blushing and ducking her head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to… sorry.” Blake blinked, surprised to hear the familiar accent, though she supposed she shouldn’t be, considering the ears currently drooping atop the other girls head. “Um…” She still wasn’t used to the way social situations could crop up so suddenly at Beacon. How did people just talk to people they didn’t know? “Don’t worry about it.” She stood there for a moment, wondering if she should say something else.

“My name’s Velvet.” The girl said when it became obvious that Blake wasn’t planning on moving or speaking first.

Blake stared at her. “Blake.” she finally said. “My name’s Blake. Are you from Menagerie?” she said, grasping for the first topic she could think of. She cringed when Velvet gave her an odd look. “I mean. I haven’t heard that accent here… before. Heard it before.”   _‘Nice’_ she thought. _‘Nothing suspicious about me, nope.’_

Velvet didn’t seem to be taking offense at least. She was smiling, in fact. “Technically, I suppose. I haven’t been there since I was a baby. We moved a lot when I was a kid.”

Blake’s tension eased a little. “We did too.” she said. Velvet was stacking dishes on her tray. Blake noticed she had gathered some that other students had left as well.

“It’s nice to meet another-” she broke off her sentence. “…person who moved a lot. I’ll see you around?” She gave Blake a hopeful look as she stood. The double meaning wasn’t lost on Blake. “Oh. I mean sure. Yes.” ‘Very smooth.’ “I’ll see you around.” She watched Velvet walk away. ‘Of course she was staring because you’re a faunus. Why else would she be? It’s easy enough to tell if you have a sense of smell.’ Blake shook her head and started for the doors again. It wouldn’t do to still be standing here when Velvet walked by again.

 _‘She can’t be in our year or she would have been at the entrance exam. So she’s probably older than me.’_ Why did that matter? It didn’t. It wasn’t important, and she should stop worrying about such things. What she should be worrying about was the fact that now someone else at Beacon knew her secret. _‘It should be fine. She seems okay. It might even be nice to have someone to talk to about it. But…’_ Blake couldn’t quite suppress the sinking feeling in her gut when she thought about it. _‘A secret someone else knows isn’t a secret.’_ She was just reaching for the door when it burst open to reveal Yang and Nora. Yang was clutching her side, laughing.

“And then.” Nora said “Then he comes back into the room two minutes later, says ‘Never tell me what happened’ and goes right back to what he was doing!”

Wiping a tear from her eye, Yang almost walked straight into Blake. “Hey Blake! Almost didn’t see you there! Nora was just telling me the best story.” Nora grinned from ear to ear. “I can start over! See, Jaune and I were arguing over whether I could eat an entire tub of ice cream-” “Nora.” Blake cut her off. “We have class.”

“You got that right!” Yang yelled before checking her scroll. “We also have to eat if we don’t want to be late. You’ll have to regale her with your ice cream exploits later, Nora. C’mon!” Yang headed for the food. Blake arched an eyebrow at Nora. “Jaune thought you couldn’t eat a whole tub of ice cream?”

Nora grinned again. “It was our first night in our dorm room.”

“Of course.”

“I ate five.”

Blake rolled her eyes, then gestured after Yang. “Don’t let her be late for class again. Weiss will flay her alive.”

Nora straightened and gave an exaggerated salute. Rolling her eyes again for good measure, Blake finally left the cafeteria.


	5. Shop Class

Blake made her way across Beacon’s campus, a light breeze ruffling her hair. RWBY’s first class of the day was Maintenance and Care of Dust Powered Weapon Systems, which everyone just called “shop class”, as it was the only required class that happened in the machine shop. Most of the students found the class incredibly dull, since building one’s own weapon was considered a rite of passage at most junior combat schools these days. Blake was secretly thankful that Beacon even offered a basic shop course. It was one of the few classes she had struggled in so far. Though the class was only graded on an individual basis, Weiss had made it clear that she would not put up with anything less than superb grades from any of them regardless. Blake had never had even the barest of mechanical training, or even access to tools so she could self teach. She was glad to be on a team with Ruby who, aside from being a prodigy who had been admitted to Beacon two years early, was also apparently some kind of mechanical savant. 

Blake smiled as she pulled her books and safety glasses from her bag. Ruby had been bored out of her mind at first, but after Blake had asked her for help one day Ruby had taken to the role of tutor with glee. After that, shop had become one of Blake’s favorite classes, and she liked to think that Ruby felt at least somewhat the same. She took a deep breath and cracked her textbook. Blake preferred to arrive early for class and take a few minutes to review before everyone else arrived. She settled into her routine as students began to filter in, and a few minutes later Weiss and Ruby showed up. Weiss always arrived five minutes before class, usually with Ruby in tow. Ruby leaned over Blake’s shoulder, making her breath catch in her throat. “I keep telling you there’s no point to reading that thing.” 

Blake scooted away and looked up at Ruby. “I like to. It helps me focus before class.” Ruby made a face and Blake laughed, putting down the textbook. “I’m starting to think you’re right though. It’s not the best textbook.” 

“You should ask Weiss to let you borrow some of her books. She has these advanced dust mechanics books-” 

Weiss cut in. “Which you are not touching.” She pointed at Ruby. “They’re very expensive, and you’ll immediately find the most experimental thing in them and blow up the dorm or something.” 

“I would not blow up the dorm!”

“You nearly blew me up on the first day!”

“That didn’t have anything to do with advanced dust mechanics!”

Blake tuned them out, having heard this argument far too many times to count at this point. She scanned the room, noting that Ren was the only member of JNPR sitting at the team’s square workbench. Most of the class had arrived, but Yang was still conspicuously absent. 

“...right Blake?” Ruby was looking at her expectantly.

“What?” 

“I was saying Weiss could totally let yooou borrow her books, since you’re always so careful with them.”

Blake looked from Ruby’s expectant face, to Weiss’ scowl. She was inclined to tell them not to drag her into this, but the longer Ruby looked at her like that, the more she felt her resolve slipping. She probably wouldn’t get much out of them currently, but if Ruby was there…

“I suppose it might be useful to have some more detailed reading material.” Ruby gasped and Weiss rolled her eyes. “If that’s all right with you Weiss. I can make sure nothing explodes that isn’t supposed to.” 

Weiss looked from Blake to Ruby with narrowed eyes. “You’re still going to make a mess of our dorm.” She sighed. “I am stuck with the both of you for the next four years. I suppose I should encourage your academic growth however I can. Fine. But you will not try anything” she rounded on Ruby “even remotely experimental without Blake or me present, and you will use the school facilities, not our dorm. Are we clear?” 

“Yes! Yesyesyes, oh I’ve been wanting to read ‘Pneumatic Dust Systems’ for ages, uncle Qrow swears by it, but no one carries it. The author died right after she finished it.” 

The professor entered, cutting off Blake before she could ask exactly how the author had died. Instead she watched Weiss, who was eyeing Yang’s empty chair with a murderous expression on her face. Blake swore she could hear her teeth grinding from across the table. Technically Yang still had a little over a minute to get there according to the clock on the wall. She saw the rest of JNPR file into the room out of the corner of her eye. She arched an eyebrow at Nora, getting a shrug in return.

Conversation in the room hadn’t died down at all, but both Weiss and Blake preferred not to talk when class was about to begin, and Ruby had picked up on the habit after a while. Yang, with her habit of arriving just in time for class unless Weiss dragged her in early, would usually start chatting as soon as she arrived. 

Their shop professor was a tall, stocky, Atlesian woman with cropped pink hair and a severe disposition. There was a rumor that the professors drew straws each year to determine who would have to teach shop. Blake felt that they had lucked out if it was true. Professor Nova had a low tolerance for messing about, but she covered the material thoroughly. 

She cleared her throat, and the classroom quickly became silent. “Let us begin. We will be covering the drill press today.” 

“Ugh, finally.” Ruby muttered. She did not share Blake’s opinion of the professor. Unlike most of their classes where overachievement was seen as a positive, here working outside the set boundaries was a good way to earn a detention. It was the only class that Blake had ever seen Pyrrha reprimanded in, and Ruby consistently pushed the professor’s buttons. “I’ve needed to use that thing for ages. I don’t get why we have to wait for her to tell us about them before we use them.”

“It isn’t safe to use a tool you haven’t learned about.” Weiss told her, her eyes never straying from the professor. 

“But I have learned about them. There’s nothing in this shop I haven’t used before.” Ruby whined, her voice rising. “Shh!” Blake shushed them. She was trying to listen. 

“...and you may be tempted to angle your work item, like so.” professor Nova unclamped the plate of steel from it’s place on the drill mount and raised one side slightly. “This is dangerous not only to you, but to everyone, as with risking your control of almost any tool. You may send pieces flying in any direction- Ah, Ms. Xiao Long.” Yang was sidling towards their table looking sheepish. “Good of you to join us. I will expect two pages covering proper use of the drill press before you may use it. Now…” 

Yang fell into her seat with a sigh. “Great. Better than detention I guess.” 

Weiss bristled, the tension in her jaw tightening perceptibly. Blake was beginning to seriously worry about her dental health. 

The lecture passed without further incident, to Blake’s relief. She hadn’t known the first thing about a drill press, though it seemed simple enough. The class was released to work on their current projects while the professor called them over one at a time to work with the new tool under her supervision. 

For most of them this meant time to chat while perhaps putting the finishing touches on their projects. For Blake, it usually meant getting to listen to Ruby talk at length about her favorite subject. Today however, Ruby seemed more interested in railing against the unfairness of the shop rules. 

“It’s not as if any of us couldn’t take a flying hunk of metal to the face anyway. What is she so worried about?” 

Blake frowned. Confidence in one’s ability to protect oneself with aura was one thing, but assuming that everyone could was another. “I don’t know, Ruby. Unexpected strikes can sometimes do damage even through aura. I’ve seen it happen.” Blake mentally kicked herself for mentioning the last part. She didn’t want to tell that story. 

Weiss came to her rescue before Ruby could ask about it. “No one should have to be combat ready to work in the shop, Ruby.” she said without looking up from the metal she was etching. “What if someone had combat class beforehand? Their aura could be depleted before they came into the shop.” 

Ruby looked thoughtful. “That’s true, I guess. But I still don’t get why we have to go through all this basic stuff. Signal’s shop had more tools than this one did, and we only spent a few weeks going over safety then.” 

“Yeah, and we were thirteen.” Yang said. “We don’t exactly need to be told not to stick our fingers in the saw anymore.” 

Weiss shot Yang a glare when she spoke up. “But apparently we aren’t able to show up for class on time, even when we are told. Do you even have a reason for being late?”

Yang crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Maybe I just didn’t feel like getting yelled at for a few minutes.”

“Didn’t feel like…?!” Weiss made a strangled noise, slamming her tools on the table.

“Ooookay.” Ruby stood between the two of them, holding up her hands. “Maybe we should talk about this after class?” She gave Weiss a hopeful look. “When we’re not supposed to be working?”

No such luck. “Hey, if the ice princess wants to yell at me instead of doing her assignment, that’s fine with me. Maybe the professor will have her write an essay on minding her own business.”

“That’s it! Just who do you think you are, talking to me like that?”

“Guys…” Blake chimed in, but professor Nova chose that moment to call her over to work on the drill press. By the time she’d returned Yang was gone, Ruby was looking dejected, and Weiss seemed as though she was imagining Yang’s face was under the sandpaper she was using. Weiss was called over next, leaving Blake to comfort Ruby. 

Weiss walked to the drill press, fuming. ‘How dare she! Making it out to be my fault she was late. Of all the immature, selfish, mule-headed…’ She barely registered what the professor was telling her about the drill bit she was using, she was so angry. She forced herself to take a deep breath and focus on the task at hand. 

“...never to be used on dust-forged metal. They will splinter. Use these instead.” Nova pointed to a set of drill bits made of a darker metal. “Most students I tell not to use these at all. They do not last. Much softer metal. Your affinity for dust use means you will need them though.”

Weiss mentally kicked herself for leaving her notebook at the table. She should have known she would need it. Her strict adherence to the shop rules had helped her to stay in Nova’s good book from day one, and when Weiss had learned that her shop professor also taught several of Beacon’s advanced courses on dust manipulation, she had jumped on the opportunity. These days she could often get a condensed lecture out of the professor if she played her cards right. For her part, Nova seemed happy to have a younger student taking such an interest in the subject. 

Weiss managed to get a few questions about dust forging techniques answered in between instruction on the familiar tool. She did her best to keep the finer points in her head so she could write them down when she went back to the workbench. After proving that yes, she could, in fact, put a hole in a piece of wood with a drill, she was not a complete clod, Weiss walked back to her teammates, having almost driven her altercation with Yang from her mind. Her anger bubbled to the surface again when she saw Yang’s empty chair. She struggled to keep her focus on the material she had just learned. She had found a way to make something of this useless class, and she’d sooner go on a date with Yang than let the hour be a complete waste. Weiss smirked. ‘Yang on a date. That’d be a joke.’ She enjoyed the mental image of Yang floundering in a dress and heels. Watching her teammates as she approached, she considered that, while Ruby would probably be utterly hopeless in heels, formal dress would no doubt suit her well, and Blake… Weiss shook her head and took her seat, realizing that she had completely lost track of the information she wanted to record in her notebook. 

Ruby, meanwhile, was busy worrying about her sister. Yang had always had a fiery temper, but Ruby hadn’t seen her storm out of a class since her first year at Beacon. Something was bothering Yang, and whatever it was, Ruby needed to know about it so she could help. 

“I don’t know, Ruby.” Blake said. “Are you sure it’s not just… well…” She gave the girl across the table muttering over her notebook a significant look. ‘Who takes notes on how to use a drill press?’

Ruby shook her head. “Yang never gets like this unless something’s bothering her.” 

Weiss looked up from her notes. “Well whatever it is, she needs to get over it. I’m not going to put up with her slacking.” 

Ruby and Blake shared a look. “I’ll talk to her” Ruby said, at the same time that Blake began “Weiss…”

Weiss rounded on Blake “What?”

“Do you think, maybe you could try not being so…” She trailed off as Weiss gave her a withering look.

“Not being so what?” Weiss said through clenched teeth.

“...Antagonistic?” 

“Of course, Blake. I’ll just ignore the fact that Yang has been consistently late to all her morning classes for the past week. I’m sure our teachers will all agree that she should be a special exception.”

Blake could feel her ears flattening beneath her bow. “I’m not saying we should make an exception.” she said, struggling to keep the anger out of her tone. “I’m saying that yelling at Yang to get her to do something works about as well as punching her does in a fight.”

Weiss looked like she wanted to argue the point, but Ruby stepped in. “She’s right Weiss. Neither of you likes being yelled at. I mean, nobody really likes being yelled at, but you two kinda just… yell back.”

Weiss looked somewhat mollified. “I-” She paused, then started again. “I guess I’ll work on it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Give yourself a cookie if you guessed who Prof. Nova is an expy of.


	6. Something Face

Ruby was starting to worry that Yang wouldn’t show at all for Dr. Oobleck’s lecture, but just before the start of class she spotted her sidling into the room.  Taking a seat in the back row, Yang put her head on her arms and seemed to fall asleep.  Ruby looked over at her other teammates, but they were busy going over notes from the last lecture.  Blake was arguing with Weiss over her interpretation of some battle.  Ruby stood to check on her sister, but quickly sat back down when Oobleck zipped into the room, immediately launching into lecture.

Yang stayed facedown the entire class, only stirring when people began moving past her towards the exit.  Ruby zipped away from the others, only sparing a second to say “Seeyounextperiodbye!” before appearing at her sister’s elbow just as she was leaving.  Yang gave a start, surprised by Ruby’s sudden presence.  “H-hey, Ruby.  What’s up?”  Yang backed up a few paces before continuing on her way. 

“I’m the one who should be asking you that.  We’ve hardly seen you all week.”  Ruby kicked at the carpet as she walked, watching Yang for her reaction.  Her normally bubbly sister was far removed from her usual good spirits, trudging along watching the ground in front of her.  She didn’t meet Ruby’s eyes when she spoke.

“I’m fine.  Really, it’s nothing.”  

“You don’t have a nothing face, Yang.”  Ruby said, walking backwards and leaning over to peer at her sister.  “That’s a something face.”

Yang rolled her eyes, recognising the odd turn of phrase from an old huntress show they used to watch together.  “Ruby…” she started, laughter beginning to creep into her voice.  She looked away, unwilling to be brought out of her funk so easily.  She was trying to brood here.

Ruby was having none of it. “Yaaaaaang…” she said, exaggerating the ‘a’ in a ridiculous fashion.  “My sister won’t talk to me about her proooblems, Yang.  What am I gonna doooo?”

Yang’s resolve broke and she laughed out loud.  Looking up she saw her sister wearing a goofy grin, looking far too pleased with herself.  “Okay, okay.  I’ll…”  She paused, her smile fading.  “Look, Ruby, I really don’t feel like talking about it.”  

Ruby stopped, watching Yang’s face carefully.  

Yang raised her hands in front of her.  “I know, I know.  I won’t be late for class again.  Tell Weiss… tell her I’m sorry for taking it out on her this morning, okay?”

“You should really tell her yourself.”

“Nah, she’ll just blow up at me again.”

“Maybe.  She’s just…”

“She’s just Weiss.”  Yang snorted.

“She means well, Yang.  She’s just... not sure how to do that, I think.”

“She could start with not yelling at us for breathing.”

“I’m here to talk about  _ you _ though, Yang.  Something’s bothering you, and I can’t help if I don’t know what it is.”  Yang recognized her own words coming from her sister’s mouth.  How many times had they had this conversation in reverse when they were younger?

“It’s nothing.”  Her sister made a face.  “Well, okay.  It’s something, but I don’t want to talk about it.  Really.”

“Okay.  Weiss made me promise not to ‘play the team leader card’ unless I really need to-”  Yang tensed.  “and you’re saying you can deal with whatever it is and it won’t hurt your studies?”  Yang nodded, relaxing a little.  “Okay.  If you’re sure.”  Ruby didn’t look happy, but she was offering Yang an out, which she was more than happy to take.  

“You know me, Ruby.  There’s nothing I can’t handle.”  Yang cracked her knuckles for emphasis.

“Sure Yang.  Promise you’ll talk to me if you need to?”  

Yang chuckled.  There was a day that Ruby would have been fooled by her false bravado, but it looked like her little sister was growing up. 

“I will.”


	7. Count to Ten

Over the next couple of days Yang seemed to be back to her old self.  Aside from a few pensive moments and awkward conversations with Weiss where they both danced around their most recent fight without apologizing, Yang seemed as happy as ever.  It was Weiss, of all people, who first noticed that something was still amiss.

“Yang.  Yang!”

“Huh?”

They were at breakfast.  Yang had foregone her usual morning routine and was sitting with her teammates, slowly mushing an orange into the remains of her oatmeal.  She looked up to see Weiss standing over her, her hands on her hips.

“What are you-” Weiss gave her bowl a disgusted look. “Nevermind.  I was asking why you didn’t go to the gym this morning.”

Yang gave her mutilated orange a particularly vicious twist.  “I didn’t feel like it.”  

Weiss took a deep breath.  Yang blinked at her, confused at the lack of a retort.  For a long moment neither of them said anything.  Blake and Ruby stopped talking and looked over to see the other girls staring at each other in silence.  

Weiss let out her breath all at once.  “I don’t think that’s helping, Ruby.”  She said, giving her partner a grumpy look.  

“You aren’t supposed to _hold_ your breath, Weiss.”  Ruby said, rolling her eyes.  

“Wait.”  Yang said.  “Were you… counting?  In your head?”

Weiss grasped her elbow and pulled her arm across her chest, looking anywhere but at Yang.  

“Our dad used to tell me to do that.  When I was a kid, and I would get super angry and light the house on fire.”  Yang smiled.  “It never worked for me.  I just end up more angry.”  

Weiss finally looked at Yang again.  “It seems to work okay for me.”  

“That’s great, Weiss.  Hey, um...  Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For trying, I guess.  I know I’ve been getting on your nerves lately.”

“You’re… welcome?”  Weiss said, perplexed.  

Yang grinned.  “Neither of us know how to not fight about stuff, huh?”  

“Maybe.”  Weiss grinned back.

They were interrupted by a squee from across the table as Ruby tackled Weiss.  

“That was _adorable_!”

“Get off me, you oaf!”  Weiss held Ruby at arm's length, a look of horror on her face.  “Blake, help me!”  

Blake just watched them over her tea, a small smile on her face.

Once Ruby had been relegated to pouting in her chair, Weiss turned back to Yang.  “I know we’re having a heartwarming moment and all, but you still didn’t answer my question.  We’re your team, Yang.  But we can’t help you if we don’t know what’s wrong.”  

Yang rubbed the back of her neck.  “I know, I know.  Look, it’s stupid, and I’ll get over it in a week or two-”  She was interrupted by a shout from the doorway.

“Yang!”  Nora came flouncing over to their table, still in her gym clothes.  “Where were you this morning?  I need my workout buddy!”  

Weiss watched Yang’s face run through several emotions too quickly for her to make sense of them before settling into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.  “H-hey Nora.”  Yang turned on the bench, only to see that Nora had gotten uncomfortably close.  Yang’s eyes were level with her stomach.  Yang stood up so quickly she would have fallen over if she hadn’t caught herself with a hand on the bench.  “How’re things?  Eheh…”  

“Yang?”  Ruby asked.  Her teammates were all staring at her.  

Yang looked at her wrist, which was unfortunately devoid of a watch, and said “Well shucks, wish I could stay and chat!  Can’t be late for class!”  She ran for the door, pausing to give an awkward wave before slamming it shut behind her.

Weiss recovered first.  “Did you… do something to her, Nora?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.  She’s just being weird lately.  Did you like, beat her at arm wrestling or something?”

“Nope!  Wait! I totally beat her at wrestling the other day.  Ooh, can I have one?”  Nora pointed to the mostly demolished pile of sweets in front of Ruby.  

“That could be it…” Ruby said, pushing the tray towards Nora.  “Yang doesn’t lose at combat practice very often.  She’s never taken it this hard though.”  She didn’t sound convinced.  “Class isn’t for another twenty minutes.”

Nora straddled the bench across from Ruby.  “It’s weird” Nora said through a mouthful of cake “she usually wins.  She’s so sneaky!”

Blake and Weiss shared a disbelieving glance.

“She always gets inside my guard, and wham!”  Nora slammed her hand on the table to demonstrate, making the cafeteria trays bounce.  “But she was really distracted.  She’s been like that a lot lately.”  She gasped.  “You guys are right!  There’s something wrong with Yang!  We have to find her!”  She jumped to her feet, looking at the others expectantly.  

“She’ll be in class.”  Weiss said, pinching the bridge of her nose.  Both Nora and Yang in one morning was too much.  

“Oh, right.”  Nora sat back down and continued to shovel cake into her mouth.

Blake stared at the overturned teacup on the table in front of her for a full minute before letting out a small sigh and reaching for the napkins.

Weiss bit her lip.  Whatever was wrong, she hadn’t liked seeing Yang so put out.  The most disturbing thing had been her face when Nora had arrived.  Weiss might not have been able to recognize what Yang was feeling, but she knew poorly suppressed emotion when she saw it.  

Blake spoke up.  “Yang will talk to us when she’s ready, guys.”  

Weiss stared towards the door Yang had left through, watching the rest of JNPR walk in without really seeing them.  “I hope so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently I like writing breakfast scenes? IDK.  
> Also, note to self: Beacon's cafeteria has benches, not chairs. I kept wanting to have people turn around in their chairs, but this is not a thing.


	8. Can't Catch a Break

“But why would she be upset?”  Nora asked Ren for the third time as they walked to class.  “She’s never been upset when I’ve beaten her before.  ‘Course I’ve never beaten her at wrestling before.  Not that we wrestle a lot.  Well we didn’t, but we have been lately.  Oh!  Maybe she doesn’t like wrestling!  But she said she did.  She always seems so happy afterwards.”  Nora paused to think for a moment.  “Maybe she’s secretly an ex-wrestling champion!  Like the kind with the masks!  What if I’ve sullied her honor, and now she has to give up her mask in a secret ceremony?  What if I’m supposed to be there but she can’t tell me because I’m not a secret masked wrestler?  What am I going to do, Ren?”  Nora put her hand on her forehead and fell backwards.  Ren caught her with ease and set her upright again, patting her on the head.  

“I don’t think Yang’s a luchadora, Nora.”

 

* * *

 

Yang was hardly even breathing hard by the time she reached the classroom.  She had run all the way here trying to blow off steam, but a morning sprint only served to get her riled up even more.  Normally she would spend extra time in the gym when she was feeling like this, but at the moment that was just making things worse.  

_‘If I go in the morning, I’ll have to work out with Nora, but if I go another time, she’ll be hurt that I’m avoiding her, and if I tell her I don’t want to work out with her she’ll definitely be sad.’_  Yang  walked away from the classroom door, grinding one fist against the other.  She worked up to a jog as she passed empty classrooms, hardly noticing where her feet were carrying her.  The problem was, she did want to spend time with Nora.  It was just that them spending time together was leading to some rather inconvenient feelings on Yang’s part.   _‘She and Ren have known each other their whole lives.  I can’t get in the way of that.’_  Yang resented the way it burned in her throat when she thought about it.  Jealousy had never been something Yang had thought herself prone to, yet here she was.   _‘I’ve just got to avoid her for a couple of weeks.’_

Yang checked her scroll, then cursed under her breath.  Turning around, she sprinted back towards the classroom, arriving just in time to see Nora pretending to faint into Ren’s arms.  He caught her and set her upright again with a pat on the head before heading inside.  She followed after him, grinning.

Yang stood stock still in the hall.  A few of her classmates gave her curious looks as they passed.   _‘...and I was doing so well, too.’_  She turned on her heel, only to come face to face with professor Port.

“Did you forget something, my dear girl?”

“Uh… no?”  

“Did you miss the classroom?  Beacon’s identical hallways can be treacherous in that way.  Why, I remember a time at this very academy…”  Port launched into a story

Yang wondered for a moment if she could keep the professor in the hall outside his classroom for the entire period.  “...and the whelp had the nerve to say that a blunderbuss was unfashionable.  The nerve!  Of course, I…”  Thinking better of it, she interrupted the next time he paused for dramatic emphasis.

“Uh, professor, not that this isn’t all fascinating, but I’m pretty sure that Weiss, at least, wants a lecture as well.”

“Of course!  How could I be so foolish?  We shall continue this lecture in the lecture hall!”  Port marched past Yang, leaving her little choice but to follow.


	9. Hopeless

Yang was still fretting as she left her last class of the day.   _ ‘Maybe I should head in to Vale for the evening.’ _ she thought.   _ ‘I still have class tomorrow, and I really can’t afford to blow it off.  Weiss will kill me, and she’s actually been… well nice would be a stretch.’ _  She laughed under her breath.   _ ‘Still, Ruby must be getting to the ice queen.’ _  Her sister always seemed to find the best in people.  Yang cringed when she thought of how she had almost ditched class again that morning.  Not only would Weiss have been justifiably angry (Port’s class had team scoring occasionally) but Yang really couldn’t afford to be missing class all the time anyway.  It was true that she skated by in her classes without much studying, but she did it by giving her all whenever she was there.  She’d never needed much more structure than that.  She didn’t really have a backup plan if she missed a bunch of classes before a test.  

Her teammates were walking ahead of her.  Ruby was excited about some books of Weiss’, apparently, and Blake was watching the mounting horror in Weiss’ expression with obvious glee.  Obvious to Yang, anyway.  Blake had seemed aloof and detached at first, but Yang was much better at reading her emotions now.  She hadn’t expected her to be quite such a hopeless romantic.  Not that Blake would ever agree with such a description, but Yang had gotten her talking about her books a few times (the ones she would admit to reading, anyway) and there was no doubt in her mind.   _ ‘Better not let her find out about Nora.’ _  Yang’s funk returned as if it had never left.   _ ‘Last thing I need is someone trying to make things happen when I don’t want them to.’ _  The problem was, she did want them to happen, no matter how much she told herself she didn’t.   _ ‘It isn’t worth it.’ _  She told herself for what had to be the thousandth time.   _ ‘I won’t make anyone deal with this.  It’s my problem.’ _

Still stewing, Yang followed her friends back to the dorms.  The wind whipped her hair behind her, the chill distracting her from her thoughts for a moment.  She watched as Ruby spread her cloak with both arms and pulled it around the shoulders of the other two girls. Ruby’s laughter when Blake disappeared, only to reappear on a lamppost, was exactly what Yang needed, bouncing off the stone walls of Beacon’s buildings and melting away the last of her bad mood.  The laughter doubled as a very red faced Weiss extricated herself from the cloak, Myrtenaster’s pointed quillions catching on the fabric.  She immediately launched into a rant about propriety, but trailed off when Ruby wouldn’t stop giggling.  “You’re hopeless, you know that?”

Yang walked up and slung her arm over Weiss’ shoulder, not noticing how she cringed at the sudden contact.  “At least we’re all hopeless together, right?”  

“Hmph!  Don’t lump me in with the rest of you!  Me or Blake!  Blake is not hopeless!”  

Blake, who was climbing hand over hand down the lamppost, froze when she heard her name.  She slid a few inches down the pole as the other three stared at her, her hands making a drawn out squeaking sound.

Weiss buried her face in her hands.  “We’re doomed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's still going to be a while before we really get to the Newspaper part of this story, but I am looking forward to writing more of these dorks being cute together. ^_^


	10. Interrogated

“Nora, why are we in this closet?”  Jaune asked from his spot behind a vacuum cleaner.

“Shh, they’ll hear you!” Nora shouted, her ear pressed against the door.

“Look, if you can’t even tell me what’s going on I’m going to go get started on my homework.  Can you believe we have three essays due next week?”  

“Jaune.”  Pyrrha was pressed up against the wall behind him.  “Maybe we should stay.”

Nora looked at where the two of them were positioned and rolled her eyes.

“I imagine Nora is waiting for team RWBY.”  Ren was sitting on a stack of boxes, his neck bent and his head against the ceiling.  

“Why can’t we wait for them somewhere other than a supply closet?”

“Shh!”

There were voices outside in the hall.  Yang was laughing.  “What is it, Blake?”

“Did you guys hear that?”  

“Hear what?”

“We’ve been made!” Nora yelled, throwing the door open and tripping over a box of toilet paper.  “Every huntress for herself!”  

The rest of JNPR began extracting themselves from the closet, stepping over Nora who was lying on her back at Yang’s feet.  

“Yang!”

“Waugh!” Yang took several frantic steps backwards.  “Nora!”

“Hi!”  

“Why were you in a closet?”  

Nora curled and leapt to her feet.  “Why weren’t _you_ in a closet?”

“I… What?”  

Pyrrha cleared her throat.  “Nora was worried about you, Yang.  You’ve seemed down lately.  What that had to do with us hiding in a closet, I’m not sure, but she was very insistent.”  She giggled behind her hand.

“Do you see what I have to work with?”  Nora said, smiling at Pyrrha to take the sting from her  words.  “How are we ever going to get away with any decent pranks without hiding in a closet?”

“Oh so this was a prank?”  Pyrrha smirked.

“Of course not!  This is about finding out why you-” She stuck her finger in Yang’s face.  “are sad!”  

“Maybe I’m sad because my friends keep ganging up on me over nothing.”

“So you admit it!  You _are_ sad!”

“That’s not what I…  Ugh!”  Yang turned on her heel and stormed off.  Nora followed until Pyrrha caught her by the stomach, lifting her onto a shoulder.

Nora struggled until Yang turned a corner.  “No, Pyrrha, why?  How could you betray me so?”

“Do you think we should go after her?”  Ruby asked her teammates.  “Hey wait, where’s Blake?”

 

* * *

 

Yang stalked down the corridor, hardly noticing where she was going.  ‘ _Why did she have to notice?  I was doing just fine.  Now everything’s going to be awkward, and she probably thinks I hate her.’_ Her feet carried her out of the building of their own accord, tracing the familiar path to the gym.  She stood outside the doors for a moment, before shrugging and pushing them open.

Blake was inside, leaning against the wall.

“Uh… Fancy seeing you here, Blake.”  

“Yes.”

“Here to interrogate me too?”  

“Not really.”

Yang scowled at her, but Blake just stared back, her eyes seeming to glow slightly in the evening light.

“You’re kind of strange, you know that?”   _‘Every time I think I’ve gotten to know my new partner, she goes and starts acting all mysterious on me.’_

Blake blinked and looked away.  “If you want me to leave, I will.”  

Yang thought for a moment, then shrugged.  “Up to you.  I’m going to go blow off some steam though.”  She headed for the locker rooms, shrugging off her jacket as she walked.  Blake followed.  

Yang changed and headed for the track to start her warm-up.  Blake was still in her day clothes.  “Are you just going to watch me work out then?  I didn’t really think you the type, Blake.”  Yang wiggled her eyebrows, laughing when Blake blushed.   _‘Thought so.  Why couldn’t I have a thing for her?  That would be… well, that wouldn’t really be a lot easier.  We’re partners on the same team.’_   

“I was going to join you.  If that’s okay.”  

Yang gave Blake’s clothes a more pointed look this time.  

“Oh.  Do I have to have a change of clothes?”

“Have you never used the gym before?  Oh man, Blake, you should have told me!  I’ll show you around, but first let’s get you some workout clothes.  I’ve got some you can borrow.”  She laughed when Blake gave her a skeptical look.  “Unless you really want to get those tights sweat-soaked.”  

“Maybe I will just watch.”

“Aww, but Blake, now I wanna show you around.  Besides, what kind of huntress doesn’t know how to use the gym?”  It was a bit of a low blow, but she really wanted a workout buddy.

“Fine…” Blake sighed, and before she knew it Yang had grabbed her hand and was dragging her back towards the locker rooms.


	11. At the Gym

Ten minutes later, Blake was regretting her decision to try to keep Yang company.  

“It’s fine.”

“This shirt is huge, Yang.”

“Don’t worry about it.”  

“It’s going to fall off.”

Blake was wearing one of Yang’s workout outfits.  It was clean, or so Yang swore, but it still smelled strongly of her partner.  Blake was just glad there weren’t any other faunus around to judge her for letting someone scent mark her so easily.  Humans didn’t care about such things though, as far as she could tell, so she couldn’t very well use it as an excuse.  

“Here.”  Yang said, before tying knots in the fabric at the waist and sleeves.  

Blake shifted about, testing the fit.  It seemed like it would stay on all right.  They had started towards the exit when she caught sight of herself in a mirror.  

“I look ridiculous.”  

“Nah, you’re fine.  Gym clothes aren’t for looking good.  You sure you don’t want to leave that bow?”  Yang pointed at her head.  “It’s gonna get super sweaty.  I can put it in my locker if you want.” 

Blake shook her head, not trusting herself to give a verbal excuse.

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn ya.  At least it’s not as bad as Ruby.  The first time I tried to get her to work out with me she still wasn’t going anywhere without that cloak of hers.”  She laughed at the memory.

Unsure how to react to the admission that Yang understood that her bow was important to her, but apparently wasn’t worried about why, Blake nodded.  

“Okay, so I usually start with a few laps around the track to get warmed up, we can start with that.  Then I want to show you some of the weight machines…”

Blake followed her partner around the gym, taking in the various uses of the equipment and enjoying watching Yang in her element.  Yang’s face was alight with enthusiasm, her anger from earlier completely forgotten.  The gym was mostly empty, most of it’s usual patrons on their way to the cafeteria for dinner.  Yang waved to a few upperclassmen that Blake didn’t know.

“...and this is the weight room.”  Yang pulled open the door to a room mostly devoid of people.  Blake scanned the racks of weights, noticing the rather impressive numbers painted on the sides of the larger ones.  In the corner of the room a very tall man in green was benching what looked like a great deal of weight, being spotted by a girl with rabbit ears.  Velvet.

Blake was out of the room in a flash, leaving a very confused Yang chattering to thin air.

“Blake?  Where’d you go?  Hey Velvet, did you see where Blake went?”

_ ‘Of course.’ _  Blake sighed.   _ ‘The one other faunus I know at Beacon, and she just happens to be here, now, and Yang doesn’t even know why this is embarrassing.’ _  She stuck her head into the room.  “Over here Yang.”

“Oh, there you are.  I could have sworn you were right here a second ago.  Have you met Velvet and Yatsuhashi?”

“I know Velvet.”  Blake said, wishing that she had just snuck away when she had the chance.  Slowly she walked into the room.  “I don’t think I’ve met-  Wow you’re tall.”   _ ‘...and shirtless.’ _

Yang snorted.  “Yatsuhashi, this is Blake, my partner.”

Yatsuhashi’s voice was deep, but mellower than Blake expected.  “Velvet mentioned you.  It’s good to meet you, Blake.”  

“Likewise.”  Blake groaned internally.   _ ‘Does her whole team know?’   _ When Yang started asking Yatsuhashi about reps (whatever those were) she arched an eyebrow at Velvet, fishing for an answer, but Velvet seemed too distracted by Blake’s unusual clothes.  

“Yellow looks good on you.”

Blake blinked.  That had not been what she was expecting.  She was suddenly far too aware of Velvet’s own state of dress.  She was wearing form fitting grey sweatpants and a baggy pink shirt.  “Thanks…?”  

Velvet was rather put out by Blake’s response.  “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.  It’s just very different.  Brings out your eyes.  Sorry.”  

“It’s fine.” 

It looked like they were going to be there a while.  Yang was interrogating Yatsuhashi about his workout routine.  Blake took a seat on one of the workout benches, and after a moment, Velvet did the same.  Blake could feel her heartbeat increasing.  She fought to keep it under control; she didn’t want Velvet to hear it and get the… right idea?  Blake gave her a sidelong look out of the corner of her eye.  She was intently studying her toes.   _ ‘Do I want her to notice?  That would be...' _  This line of thought was not helping her keep her heart rate down.  

“So Yang is showing you around the gym?”

“Yeah.  She’s seemed down lately, she came here to blow off steam.  I didn’t like the idea of her doing it alone, so I came too.”  

“That’s why you’re wearing her gym clothes?”  

“Yes.”  Blake blushed at the implication behind Velvet’s statement.  It also reminded her of the question she really needed to ask.  “Did you tell the others about me?”

“About you?”  Velvet looked confused.  

Blake looked around surreptitiously before pointing at her bow.

Velvet looked nonplussed for a second, then it clicked.  “Oh, you have cat-”  She put her hand over her mouth.

Blake gave the other two a frantic look, but they were far too engrossed in talking about workout machines to have given the quiet conversation happening nearby any thought.

“Sorry.  It’s a secret?” 

Blake nodded, stone faced.

“I didn’t tell anyone.  I figured you didn’t want people talking about it, though I was worried you were…”  Velvet looked at her toes again.  “I’m glad you have your ears.”  

Blake watched Velvet, a small smile growing on her face.  Velvet had thought she was a faunus who had lost her animal trait.  It was a reasonable guess.  Some medical centers still removed them at birth, particularly in Atlas.  Some faunus wound up removing theirs on their own, to blend in or out of frustration, and some... some lost them in ways that made Blake’s blood boil just thinking about it.

“Thanks.  I am too.”  Blake braced herself for the obvious question, but it never came.  Instead Velvet just said “I hope I get to see them someday.”  

Blake stared at the other girl, who looked up and caught her eye.   _ ‘Her eyes are so pretty.’ _  She blinked but didn’t look away.  

“Are you going to tell your partner?”  It wasn’t the question she had been expecting, but it stung nonetheless.  

“I don’t know.”  Blake looked over to where Yang was sitting.  She had apparently talked Yatsuhashi into an arm wrestling match.  Both of them were kneeling next to a bench, arm muscles bulging from the exertion.  Yang was grinning, and Yatsuhashi was as stoic as ever.  Blake was starting to wonder if he ever showed emotion.  “I don’t know how she’d take it.”

“You never quite can.  I don’t know what you should do.  Just…  I can’t imagine trying to keep that from Yatsuhashi.”  

“He’s your partner?”

“Yes.  We’ve gotten so close over the past year, I never would have believed it.  When we always used to move, I made so many friends I never got to keep that I just, sort of... stopped.  After a while.”  Velvet frowned, her ears drooping.  Blake wanted to reach out and hug her.  It was the sort of thing that Yang or Ruby would have done without question, she was sure, but she just sat there like a lump with her hands in her lap.  “It was really hard.  It’s so much better now though.”  

“Why did you move around so much?”

“My mother is a diplomat for Menagerie.”  Velvet said, a hint of bitterness edging into her voice.

When she didn’t elaborate, all Blake could come up with was “Oh.”

“What about you?”  Velvet seemed eager to change the subject.  

Blake thought for a while, appreciating that Velvet let her take her time without pressuring. “I’m not ready to tell anyone yet.  About me, I mean.  There’s a life I’m trying to leave behind.  There are questions I’m not ready to answer.  I don’t know if I ever will be.”  It was as close as she dared come to talking about her time in the White Fang.  There was every chance Velvet would guess the truth anyway, but it had been so long since Blake had had someone to confide in that she couldn’t help herself.

A loud ‘thump’ and a whoop from Yang signaled that the impromptu match had ended.  Blake’s heartbeat picked up again as she realized that she would be expected to go back to touring the gym with Yang again.  That wasn’t such a bad thing, but she didn’t want her conversation with this girl to end.  As Yang and Yatsuhashi started walking towards them, Blake, in a panic, said the first thing she could think of that might put them both in the same place in the future.

“Do you want to go out sometime?”  

“What?”  Velvet, who had been staring at Blake with an odd look on her face, suddenly looked very confused.  

Blake blushed a deep crimson, making a few strangled sounds before she remembered how to make words again.  “I meant… I mean… It- it would be nice to talk again.  More. To you.  Like, to get together in the same place.  I didn’t mean…”  She flailed her arms to express how much she  _ definitely, positively  _ hadn’t meant anything else, shaking her head for added emphasis.  

“Oh.”  Blake’s heart leapt when she thought she heard a hint of disappointment in Velvet’s voice.   _ ‘Definitely didn’t mean anything else.  Nope.’ _  “I’d love to.”  Velvet said, smiling.  “I know a great little cafe in Vale.  We could-”  She paused and considered Blake. " _ get together _ there.”  

Blake melted.  It was all she could do just to nod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of scent marking being important in faunus culture comes from the lovely fanfic 'Catnip' on That Other FanFiction Site. If you enjoy Monochrome and/or general shenanigans with the RWBY cast, I highly recommend it.


	12. Nonchalant

They were halfway back to the dorms, and Velvet still couldn’t believe her own daring.   _‘Well, Coco keeps telling me I need to try to learn more about myself.  This definitely counts.’_  She ran a hand through her hair, pulling at the knots.   _‘But I don’t think that’s precisely what she meant.’_  Coco had been referencing her semblance, but wasn’t your semblance supposed to be a reflection of who you were?  She shook her head to clear her thoughts.  If she was doing this, there was a question she needed an answer to.

“Yatsuhashi?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think it’s a bad idea for me to date again?”

If Yatsuhashi was taken aback, he didn’t show it, pausing only briefly before answering.  “Not if you want to.  It has been a long time.  Blake?”  

Velvet felt embarrassment creeping up her gut, but it vanished when her partner gave her a rare smile.  

“Yes.”  She said, so quietly he could barely hear her over the rustling of the Autumn leaves.

“I hope she treats you well.”  He was watching where they were going again.  Velvet watched him from the corner of her eye for a while.  She wasn’t exactly surprised that he didn’t say more, but it was still odd for the first person she mentioned it to to be so nonchalant about it.  That was Yatsuhashi’s way though.  She had only seen him overtly distressed twice, once when Coco had done something very out of line in their first year, (she still cringed a bit at the memory) and again, much more so, when Fox had been badly injured by a Grimm.  

Velvet could only hope it went so well when the rest of her team found out.  


	13. Storytime

Dinner time had come and gone, and Blake and Yang still weren’t back yet.  

“Do you think she’s okay?”  Ruby asked for what had to be the millionth time.

Weiss tightened her grip on her pencil, gritting her teeth.  “I’m sure she’s fine, Ruby.”  

Weiss was sitting at her desk, studying.  She was trying, anyway.  Ruby was in bed.  Papers were spread out in all directions, and she was lying sideways with her head hanging slightly off the side, holding a book up over her head as if looking at it from below would make it make more sense.  “But what if she isn’t?  She’s not answering her scroll!  What if she’s really sad and I’m just lying here studying?”

Weiss’ pencil snapped.  She turned in her chair to round on Ruby.  “If you were studying, you would be making a lot less noise!”

Ruby gave her a hurt look and budged back up into her bed-tent, leaving Weiss feeling like she had just kicked a puppy.  With a sigh she turned back to her books.  Minutes later she still hadn’t gotten past the next paragraph.  The hurt silence stretching from Ruby’s bunk was somehow more distracting than her constant chatter.  

“Ruby.”  

“Hm?”  She stuck her head out again.

Weiss couldn’t meet Ruby’s eyes.  She settled for staring at the bedframe.  “I’m sure she’ll be fine, Ruby.  I can hardly blame her for being defensive when the seven of us were breathing down her neck like that.  Give her some time to cool off, and-” she risked a glance at Ruby’s face.  She was smiling, that had to be a good sign.  “-we can talk to her without... interrogating her.”

“Yeah.”  The two girls held each other’s gaze for a while, neither one sure what to say next.  Ruby broke the silence first.  “Sorry for bugging you.” 

“Yeah…”  Weiss said, not really registering what Ruby was saying.  “I mean…”  She gave her head a little shake.  “It’s okay.  It is your job to worry about your team, after all.”   _ ‘Why am I having so much trouble focusing all of a sudden?  I didn’t think I was that tired.’ _  “Plus she’s your sister.”  She paused, then added “…and my teammate.”

“You got that right!”  Yang shouted from the doorway, making them both jump.  Ruby nearly fell from her bunk, but she still recovered first.  “Yang!  Whendidyou...?” she stuttered, hanging by one hand from a rope, the bed creaking ominously.

Weiss stayed stock still, trying to school her face into a blank expression, with limited success.  

“Just now- Oof!”  Yang was tackled by a red blur.  Blake edged past Yang and Ruby and made for the bathroom, but Yang caught her by the sleeve.  “Oh, no you don’t.”  she said, holding Ruby in a one armed hug and Blake with the other.

The commotion gave Weiss enough time to sort herself out.  Yang had one eye open and a mischievous grin on her face, and now that Weiss trusted herself to look at them without screaming, she saw that Blake was blushing furiously and tugging at her sleeve.  “You guys will not believe what happened today.”  Yang crowed.  

“Blake went with you to the gym?”  Ruby mumbled from Yang’s shoulder.  

“No!  Wait, that did happen, but that’s not the cool thing.  The-”  

“Yang.”  Blake interrupted.

“Hey, if you want to tell the story…”  Yang trailed off, arching an eyebrow at Blake.  Blake hesitated, but before Yang could start again, Weiss jumped in.  “If she doesn’t want to talk about it, don’t you think we should leave her alone Yang?”  

Weiss’ pointed comment struck home.  Yang released her sister (who began comically gasping for air) and Blake to rub the back of her head and give a small chuckle.  “I suppose you’ve got me there.”  Blake took a step backwards, then another, before bolting.  She shut and latched the bathroom door, breathing a long sigh of relief.  

Back in the room, Yang started rummaging through her clothes looking for sleepwear, Ruby clambered back up onto her bed to try to organize her thoroughly scattered homework, and Weiss went back to studying.  She had hardly been at it ten minutes when Yang spoke up again.

“Y’know…” she started, as Blake crept silently into the room.  Unfortunately, Yang had been keeping an eye on the door, so Blake’s attempt at stealth was pointless.  “If we end up with too many things we don’t want to talk about it’s going to get pretty awkward around here.”  Blake froze and eyed her escape routes.  She did not like where this conversation was headed. 

Weiss looked up from her book.  “Why don’t you tell us what’s bothering you, then?”

“Because I don’t like making people deal with my problems.”  She pulled a tank top from her drawer, sniffed it, and shrugged.  “But It’s looking like I’m gonna have to come clean, so we can at least make a game of it.”  She grabbed a pair of boxers and threw both pieces of clothes at her bed.  “Besides, I wanna hear Blake’s version of what happened at the gym!”  She pulled a chair and sat in it backwards, grinning over the backrest at Blake, who had sidled over to the hallway door.

Blake gave Weiss a pleading look.

On the one hand, Weiss didn’t want to force Blake into anything.  On the other, she really did want to know what had happened that Yang was so excited about.

“I don’t think you’re going to stop Yang from telling tall tales, Blake.  You might as well make sure she doesn’t take too many creative liberties.”

Blake sighed and sagged back against the door.  “I may have… kind of asked out Velvet.”

“Who?”  Weiss asked.  “Wait, you did what?”

“OH!  Oh!  You have to help me figure out what her weapon is!”  Ruby yelled.  

“Guys, let her finish.”  

“There’s not much more to tell.”  Blake didn’t feel that Velvet’s personal details were hers to share, and they hadn’t talked about much else.  “I panicked and asked her out, and she… she said yes.  She said there’s a cafe she likes in Vale that we could go to.”  Blake’s earlier tension was ebbing away, replaced by a goofy smile.  

“She.”  Weiss repeated, looking to her other teammates for confirmation that she had heard correctly, but they were too busy listening to Blake to notice Weiss’ confusion.

“She was really nice about it.  I just blurted it out, and I started freaking out-”

“You guys should have seen her face.”  Yang cut in.

“-and she just mentioned this place she liked.”  Blake frowned.   _ ‘Did she really mean it romantically?  Maybe I just-’ _

Ruby was thinking along the same lines.  “Are you sure she meant it the same way you did?”  

“Oh, she meant it that way all right.”  Yang said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively and laughing when Ruby made a face.  “I heard her.  She wants a piece of that.”  She tilted her head toward Blake.

While she was relieved that Yang didn’t think there had been a miscommunication, Blake was less than pleased with Yang’s wording.  Her blush deepened and her words got caught in her throat as she tried to find a way to explain that, no, Velvet wasn’t like that.   _ ‘I think.  I don’t know her very well yet.  What if she does want to do… things… right away? ’ _  Blake hid her face in her hands.   _ ‘Do I want that?  She is really pretty.  I just started getting used to being here though.’ _  She had thought at first that she would never be comfortable being around so many humans, but she had adapted amazingly quickly.   _ ‘I don’t know how any of this works.  Maybe-” _  she peeked between her fingers at the others.  Yang and Ruby had taken to arguing over Velvet’s intentions, while Weiss looked like she was trying to bore through Blake’s skull with her eyes.  She blinked and looked away when she noticed Blake watching her.

“Regardless,”  Weiss interrupted over the sister’s bickering.  “It sounds like Blake has a date for this weekend.”  Weiss’ voice was higher pitched than usual.  It sounded a bit like the voice Blake associated with the times she was frustrated with Yang.  “We, as her teammates, should help her prepare.  Because that’s what teammates do when this happens.  Yes.  It is this weekend, right?”  

Blake stared at her.  “We didn’t set a time.”  She hadn’t even thought about it.  

Weiss gave her an exasperated look.  

“I was worrying about other things, okay!”  Blake threw her hands in the air and slid down to sit in front of the door curled into a ball.  

“Not to worry.”  Yang had pulled out her scroll and was thumbing through her contact list.  “Here you go.”  She held it out so that Blake could see ‘Velvet Scarlatina’ glowing on the screen above a scroll number.  

“Why do you have her number?”  Weiss asked as Blake fumbled for her scroll.

“I always get numbers when I meet people at the gym.  You never know when you’ll need a workout buddy.”  Yang’s smile slipped a little.  

“Well, it’s fortunate that you do.  Blake, do you have the number?”  she looked up from her scroll and nodded.  “Here’s what you do.  Text her saying you’d- not now!”  Weiss looked scandalized.  “You just talked to her!  You can’t text her now, you’ll look desperate.”  

Yang raised her eyebrows.  “Oh, are you an expert on these things?”

“As a Schnee, I’ve been instructed in all of the proper protocols-”  

“Yeah, screw that.”  Yang scoffed over Weiss’ “Hmph!”.  “Listen, Blake.  Don’t overthink it too much.  You like her, she likes you, you’re going to hang out together and see what happens.  She’s probably worrying about the same thing right now, but she doesn’t have your number.”

Blake perked up at Yang’s words.   _ ‘That would make sense…’ _  Looking down at her scroll again, she began typing out a message.  

“What about your secret then?” Weiss asked, now that Blake was busy fussing over her scroll.  

Yang flinched.  “Y’know, I was kinda hoping we’d get distracted by Blake’s story and forget about it.”  

“Not gonna happen, Yang.”  Ruby said.  “Time to spill.” 

Yang took a deep breath.  “Right.  So I’ve been having this little problem with Nora.”

“You’re having a problem with Nora?”  It was Weiss’ turn to scoff.  “I would think you two would be like peas in a pod.  She’s been really worried about you, you know.”  

“Yeah, that’s part of the problem.  See, if she finds out I like her, she’ll feel bad.”

“Ohhhh… that kind of problem.”  Ruby said, at the same time that Weiss screeched “What?!”

Three heads turned to stare at Weiss.  “But- When- You- But-”  Weiss sputtered.  “But you like boys!”

“Yeah, sometimes.”  

“Is everyone here gay?”  Weiss asked, giving Ruby a pleading look.

Ruby shrugged.  “I dunno.  Maybe?”

“Wow, they aren’t kidding when they say Atlas is full of prudes, huh?”

“I am not a prude!  I’m just… not used to people being so open about this kind of thing.”

“So it isn’t a problem?”  Blake asked from over her scroll, the worried note in her voice bringing Weiss up sharp.  

“It-  Of course not.”  She realized she was fidgeting and clenched her hands in her lap.  “Vale’s culture was one of the reasons I chose to come to Beacon, after all.”  

Blake thought on this for a moment, then nodded.  “So when you say ‘everyone’, does that include you?”

Weiss blanched, folded her arms and looked away.  “I’m not answering that.  You lot may be perfectly happy to talk about such things, but that information is private.”

Yang looked like she wanted to press the issue, but Ruby came to Weiss’ rescue.  “So you like  _ Nora _ ?” she said, prodding her sister with her foot.  “When did that happen?”  

“I don’t know, it kinda snuck up on me.  One day we were gym buddies-  Did you know she can bench press more than me? -and the next day I just kind of… lost it.  She’s just so...”

“Cute?”  Blake supplied. 

“Psychotic?”  Weiss quipped.

“How much can she bench?”  Ruby asked.

“A lot.  It’s part of why we started hanging out.  I hadn’t met someone who could out-lift me in a while.  It gave me something to work towards.”

“But… Nora?”  Weiss asked.  “Really?”

Yang rolled her eyes.  “Yes ice queen, really.  She’s really sweet, actually.”  She had that sad little smile again, and this time Weiss realized why it bothered her so much.  It was the same suffering-in-silence look that her sister had worn so often, years ago.  

“Why haven’t you asked her out then?  Weren’t you just explaining how simple it is?”

“This is different.”  

Weiss scoffed.  

“It is!  She’s head over heels for Ren, everyone can see it.  I can’t get in the way of that.  She probably doesn’t even like girls anyways.”  

“Uh-huh.”  Blake cut in.  “No one could like both.  That would be crazy.”

Yang held her gaze for a moment, then laughed.  “Okay, maybe that’s not a good excuse.  But she’s still dating someone else, and she’s really happy.  I’m not going to get in the way of that.  I’ve already put you guys through enough angst over this anyways.”

“Yang.”  Blake said.  “Nora isn’t dating Ren.”  

“She’s not?”  

“No.  It was all she talked about before our initiation, and she’s mentioned it several times since.  She does seem to like him though.”  

“Why were you talking to her before initiation?  Weren’t you, like, reading a book in the corner the whole day?”

Blake shook her head. “I didn’t talk to her, but I did want to make sure I was partnered with someone I could work with, so I spent most of the day observing people.  I wasn’t the only one angling for their choice of teammates.”  She gave Weiss a pointed look.

“You chose me?”  Yang said, rubbing the back of her head.  “Aw, Blake, that’s so sweet.  I just kinda blasted myself as far into the forest as I could and hoped for the best.”

“Fortunately you were loud enough to be easy to track down anyway.”

“I was looking for Yang too, but I ran into Weiss instead.”  Ruby smiled at her partner.  

“You then proceeded to make a complete fool of yourself.”

“At least I didn’t set the forest on fire.”

Having heard this argument quite a few times at this point, Yang tuned out the other two and focused on Blake.  “You think I should go for it?”

“I don’t think I’m the person to ask about this sort of thing, Yang.”  

“You’re the one with a hot date this weekend.”  

Blake’s blush returned, and she mumbled her next few words into her knees.  “That was an accident.”  

“Still better than me.  I’ve had a bunch of people ask me out, but I always overthink it when I want to ask someone.”

“I don’t think Nora will take it too hard, even if she doesn’t feel the same.  She’s been through a lot.  Ren has too.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’ve been through some tough times together.  I did more than a little digging before I came here, Yang.”

“Someday you’re gonna have to fill me in on where you learned all this cloak and dagger stuff.”  

Blake tensed a little, but Yang was still smiling and there was no threat in her tone.  “I…”  Blake swallowed and looked at the message she had typed out on her scroll.  “Maybe someday.”  

She closed her eyes and hit send.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's been a while. There's been a lot of pesky life happening to keep me from this fic, but now that the school year has ended I'm hopeful that I'll be able to devote more time to it. 
> 
> This chapter is one of the ones I'm happiest with, but also the most nervous about posting. Thoughts?


	14. Couchwalk

Upstairs in a different dorm, Velvet’s scroll buzzed against the tabletop.  “Velvet!”  Coco shouted from a hammock slung between the top of the window frame and a light fixture.  Clashing brightly colored blankets covered the walls, and an assortment of mismatched furniture was jigsaw-fit into the room, covering the entire floor except for a small patch in the corner next to a bed and the desk that Velvet’s scroll was sitting on.  “Velvet, your scroll!”  Grumbling, Coco swung from her hammock and walked along the back of a couch to grab the scroll.  “Oh no Coco, what am I going to do?  Some mysterious thing happened and I need to talk to someone, but I can’t tell you who it is!  That would be too easy.”  She swiped the screen open to reveal the beginning of a text message, the majority of it blocked by Velvet’s password screen.  

‘Hi, this is Blake.  Yang gav...’

“I’ll just leave my scroll here while I take a shower, it’s not like whoever… ‘Blake’ is might try to contact me.  Oh no.  That would never happen.”  

The door opened and Fox climbed in, making for his bed in the corner of the room. 

“Hey Fox.  Do you know someone named Blake?”

“Nope.”

“Well whoever they are, they’re texting Velvs.”  

The bathroom door opened and Velvet stuck her head out, holding the corner of a towel wrapped around herself.  “Who’s texting me?”

“Your secret lover, Blake.”  Fox deadpanned.  

She sprung across the room, touching lightly on a chair and an upturned table leg before snatching the scroll from Coco’s hand.  

“Whoa, Velvs.  No need to go pulling out the semblance.  I was going to hand you your scroll anyway.”

Velvet landed on the back of an armchair which fell over leaving Velvet sprawled on a bean bag.  Coco carefully watched the ceiling as Velvet adjusted her towel.  “I don’t understand how you can get around in here so easily, Fox, and I just did it.”  

“I have  _ couchwalk _ written on my character card.”  He said, turning a handstand on a rolling chair before dropping onto his bed.

“No matter how many times you say it, that still isn’t an explanation.”  Velvet said as she righted herself and started tapping at her scroll.  

Coco clambered over to flop down next to her.  Velvet sighed but otherwise didn’t object.

“Hi, this is Blake.”  Coco read out loud for Fox’s benefit.  “Yang gave me your number since I realized we didn’t decide on a time earlier.  I’m free this weekend if that works for you.”

Coco gave Velvet a smirk as she began tapping out a reply.  If she’d been wearing her sunglasses she would have pulled them down to the bridge of her nose, but she never wore them in the dorm, just as she wouldn’t have been caught dead without them when she went out.  She’d told Fox when he’d tried to rib her about what she wore when they’d first met- “There are clothes for when you’re out, and clothes for when you’re in.”  She was wearing a pair of thick brown sweatpants and an oversized white t-shirt.  “Good fashion sense is about wearing the best clothes for what you’re doing, not wearing the best clothes.  Also accessorizing.”

“So, Velvet, when were you going to tell us about your mystery man?”  

“My what?”  

“Your not so secret date for this weekend.”  She said, pointing at the screen.  “Did Yang introduce you?”  

Velvet’s scroll buzzed again, but she was too busy staring at Coco to care. 

“Weiss says I’m supposed to suggest a time,”  Coco read.  “so how about noon on Saturday?  Let me know what time works best, or if you changed your mind.”  Coco smirked as Velvet started typing out a reply.  “Better hurry Velvs, sounds like he’s getting worried.”  She hoisted herself up and climbed over to her hammock, jumping into it with practiced ease.  It swung gently back and forth as she watched Velvet agonize over her response.   _ ‘She seems excited.  Good thing too, I was worried she had given up on men after that disaster last year.’   _ She realized her fists were clenched around the edges of her hammock and loosened them, taking a deep breath.   _ ‘I’m never going to forgive myself for introducing her to that git.’ _  He had seemed innocent enough at first, but…  “So this guy knows both Weiss and Yang, huh?  And he asked you out?”  She let out a low whistle.  “I hope you understand the kind of competition you just outplayed here.” 

“You really aren’t helping Yatz win his ‘Coco is straight’ bet.”  Fox quipped.

“Hey, there’s a difference between appreciating beautiful girls and wanting to screw them.”

“So Velvet, how long do you think it’ll be before she figures it out?”

Coco narrowed her eyes.  “Figure what out?”  She looked over to Velvet, who was intently studying her hands.

“It’s well past the freshman curfew.”  Fox said, a wicked grin on his face.  “I wonder why Blake was in Weiss’ dorm a few minutes ago?”

Coco stared at him, her mouth hanging open for a second before she snapped it shut, his grin widening at the sound.  

“Velvs, I know you can take care of yourself, but are you sure you can handle that kind of relationship?”

“I…”  Velvet trailed off when Fox started snickering.  She curled in on herself, torn between her desire to clarify and wanting to bury herself in beanbags and never come out.  

“Sharing someone’s affection isn’t easy, Velvet.  I just want to make sure you’re… prepared…”  Fox was positively cackling at this point.  “What’s so funny?”  

“Blake is on their bloody team, Coco!”  

“So?”  It took a moment for the pieces to fall into place.  “Oh!”  

Yatsuhashi squeezed through the door carrying several boxes of take-out in one hand.

“You asked out a girl, and it wasn’t me?  Velvet, I’m hurt.”  She put her hand over her chest in mock outrage.  “Is she the one who wears the giant bow all the time, or the one with the red highlights?”

“Oh come on Yatz, that has to count!” Fox shouted, but Yatsuhashi shook his head.  

“She’s joking. Chicken or pork?” he asked, holding a box labeled ‘veggie’ out to Velvet, who slowly lowered a hand from her face and took it with a mumbled “Thanks.”. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurghleblurgh.


	15. Night Patrol

Blake rolled over under her covers, reaching up to scratch beneath her bow.  It was obnoxious to wear at night, particularly after a shower, but she couldn’t risk her friends seeing her ears in the morning.  At least at night she could scratch without drawing attention.

She rolled over again, blowing a strand of hair out of her mouth.  With a huff, she swung herself out of bed and stalked to the bathroom.  Her mind wouldn’t stop replaying the events of the day.  She still couldn’t believe her luck.  Somehow she had asked out Velvet, Velvet had said yes, her teammates had found out, and yet none of them had a problem with it.  Well, Weiss might have, but she seemed more concerned about Velvet being a girl for some reason than she was with her being a faunus.  Blake understood in principle that homosexuality was taboo in Atlas, but it was still a strange prejudice to encounter for someone who had grown up in Vale.   _ ‘Still, not the best way to avoid drawing attention to yourself.’ _ she tried to chide herself, but she couldn’t find the will to care when Velvet’s words from earlier kept repeating themselves in her head.  Leaving the restroom Blake considered returning to her bed, but she was wide awake now.  She grabbed a pair of sweats and started pulling them on.

Ruby’s bed swayed and creaked, making Blake drop into a crouch.  “Blake?” Ruby mumbled, raising her head from her pillow and blinking slowly.  “Your eyes are glowey.”  She smiled, clearly still half asleep.  

“Go back to sleep.” Blake whispered.  She finished dressing and opened the door behind her.  

“Are you leaving?” Ruby asked, the sleep fading from her expression.  She pushed off her covers and jumped to the floor.  Weiss rolled over and mumbled something, making Ruby freeze.  When she was sure that Weiss was still asleep, Ruby crept over to Blake and followed her out into the hallway.  “Whatcha up to?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”  They walked down the hallway, Ruby keeping stride while walking backwards, her hands clasped behind her back.  “Too much to think about.”  

“Because of the thing with Velvet?”

“Mm.”  Blake nodded.  They walked in silence until they came to the exit, when Ruby caught Blake by the arm.  

“Wait, Blake, you know there’s a curfew, right?  They told us about it on the first day!”

Blake rolled her eyes.  “We’re supposed to be restricted to our rooms, yet here you are.”

“Oh crap Weiss is going to  _ kill me _ .”  

“Not if we don’t get caught.”  Blake said with a playful look, and pushed open the door.  She smiled as the cold air hit her, sending a shiver down her spine.  Ruby hugged herself and took a step away from the door.  “Too cold?”

Ruby dropped her hands to her sides and straightened up.  “I’m fine.”  She said despite the goosebumps that Blake could plainly see.  

“All right,”  Blake stifled a chuckle.  “I was just going to take a short walk anyway.”  She did laugh when she saw the barely suppressed relief on Ruby’s face.  

“Aren’t there, like, night patrols or something?”  

“They’re just local kids.  You could walk right past them and they’d only notice half the time.”

“Okay.”  Ruby stepped out the door, glancing around.  Blake watched as the light wind ruffled her hair.  

“Are you coming?”  Ruby asked, barely keeping her teeth from chattering.

Blake nodded and followed her out, setting off at a brisk pace.  

They walked silently for a few minutes, passing the main courtyard before turning back towards their dorm.  Blake watched Ruby as they walked, noticing the little things she did to try to keep herself warm.  The way she bounced more than necessary with each step.  Her hands balled into fists and held against her legs.  The impending date was still in the back of her mind, but 

Blake found herself calming down, the night air giving her mind a chance to slow down.  

They were nearly back when Blake heard footsteps.  She pulled Ruby into the shadows just as a patrol turned the corner.  They passed slowly, chatting amongst themselves.  

Once they were gone Blake gave Ruby a hard look.  “They really didn’t teach you the first thing about stealth at Signal.” 

“Uh... Not really.”

“You were fidgeting the entire time back there.  If they were well trained they would have caught us.”  ‘ _ Or if they were faunus.’ _  “Grimm would have spotted you right away too, though they wouldn’t have needed to.”  

Ruby, who had looked like she was about to protest, instead gave her a confused look.

“We were upwind.”  Blake supplied.

“Oh.”  Ruby said.  “It’s just the night patrol.  I don’t get why you’re making such a big deal.”

Blake didn’t respond until they were back inside the dorm.  She stopped in the entryway and watched Ruby rub her arms and jump from foot to foot before speaking.  “I’ve learned too many lessons the hard way, when having a second chance only meant ‘not being dead’.”  Ruby stopped and locked eyes with Blake.  Blake always deflected questions about her past, so for her to offer even such a vague detail had Ruby hanging on every word.  “I’d like to spare you from having to learn that way, if I can.  Besides, we’ll be relying on each other for the next four years, and I need at least one person on the team that I can trust to watch my back quietly.”  

Ruby nodded slowly.  

“Did you ever play hide and seek as a kid?”

Ruby blinked.  “Yeah.”

“Next time we get a free evening we should head out to Forever Fall again.  I can give you a crash course in how not to be seen.”  

“Okay, but this time I’m bringing food.”  

Blake chuckled.  “Right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [How not to be seen](https://youtu.be/dTQYEkIvN2M?t=8)


	16. Not That Different

The two made their way back to the room.  Blake was about to unlock the door when Ruby cleared her throat behind her.  “Hey, Blake?”

“Hm?”

“I… I was wondering something.”

“What?”  Blake asked when Ruby stalled.

“Well, you like Velvet, right?”

“Yes?”  Blake answered.  “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.  That’s why I was asking.  Like, how do you know?”

“How do I know I like her?”

“Yeah.”     


“Well…” Blake stepped back from the door and leaned against the wall, tapping a finger against her lips.  “I’ve only talked with her twice-” Blake blushed a bit at that admission.  She hadn’t meant to jump the gun that way, it had just sort of happened.  “-but she seems very understanding, and she’s…”  Her blush deepened  “Well she’s cute.”

“Huh.”

“Does that not make sense?”  

“I guess?  Maybe I just don’t get it yet.  It doesn’t sound that different from how I feel about most people I like.”  

Blake walked away from their room, Ruby at her heels.  Ruby deserved as honest an explanation as she could give, but it would still be  _ incredibly _ embarrassing if Weiss or Yang heard.  

“It’s different from just liking someone as a person, I guess, but that’s important too.  It’s a part of it.  I also want-”   she stalled out.  Ruby gave her an encouraging smile.  “I want to kiss her, and, well, maybe other things too.  She’s attractive.”  Blake shrugged, not sure how to explain it better than that.  

“So it’s different from how you feel about me?”  

Blake gave her an incredulous look.

“A-and Yang and Weiss!”  Ruby waved her hands in a panic.  “As your teammates!”

“Oh.  Right.  I…  Well…”  Blake was blushing again.  “It’s… not that different.  But… not like you’re saying.”  Blake wouldn’t meet Ruby’s eyes.

Ruby just looked more confused.

“I don’t think I’m the right person to ask about romance, Ruby.  I can tell you how it usually works in books.”

“I’ve read a lot of books with romance in them.  Most adventure stories have something like that.  It always seems so convenient, like, they just know they like someone and then they chase them and fall in love or whatever.”  Ruby eyed a stray red hair, blowing upwards to get it out of her face.  “I don’t get it.”

“I don’t think adventure stories are the best place to look for examples, Ruby.”  Blake gave her a little smile before looking away again.  “I’m one to talk though.”  

“Yeah, I’ve looked at your bookshelf.  I thought about asking to borrow some of those, but...” 

“Well, you can if you want.  You just have to promise not to let Yang near them, she’ll never let me hear the end of it.”  

“Still probably not the best way to try to figure this out.”

“No.  It didn’t work out so well for me, anyway.”

“How’s that?”  

Blake didn’t respond.  As the silence stretched, Ruby saw that she was clenching her hands against her thighs, her knuckles white from the strain.  “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it.” 

“It’s fine.  I’m-”  She faltered.  “Sometimes even if you care for someone you have to leave them.  Romance stories don’t prepare you for that very well.”

“I’m sorry, Blake.”  Ruby said, not sure what else to do.  She hesitated, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders.  Blake tensed at the touch.  

They stayed like that for a few minutes, Ruby eventually wrapping her other arm around Blake and pulling her close.  For a few moments, Blake’s fear of being trapped warred with her desire for comfort.  Ruby’s stealth skills might leave a lot to be desired, but giving great hugs was something she had years of experience with, not to mention several of the best teachers Remnant had to offer.  Blake raised a tentative hand and placed it on Ruby’s back, her breath catching in her throat when Ruby gave her what was meant to be a reassuring squeeze.  

Blake was exceedingly glad that Ruby didn’t have faunus hearing.  Her heart was beating a rapid staccato in her chest.   _ ‘I have a date this weekend.  I have a date this weekend.  I have a date this weekend with a very cute girl, and Ruby isn’t at all sure about any of this yet, much less interested in me.  Why is she so warm?  We were just outside.” _

“Blake, are you okay?”  Ruby sounded worried, her grip loosening.  “Your heart is going nuts.”  

Blake jumped away as if burned, her blush now a deep crimson.  “I-I’m fine.  I’m just… Just…”  She scrambled for words while Ruby watched her with a furrowed brow.  

“You’re not getting sick, are you?”  

“No, really, I’m fine.”  Blake said, some small part of her a bit exasperated that Ruby thought she was  _ sick _ , of all things.   _ ‘She really doesn’t have the first clue about this, does she?’ _  The thought calmed her down a little.   _ ‘She’s probably not going to get that upset.’ _

“I have a problem, where I don’t really seem to… not like people.  Or a lot of people anyway.  Look, can we just pretend I never said anything?”  

Ruby was still just staring at her.  

“I’m sorry.”  Blake mumbled, turning to stare at a speck on the wall.

“So when you said it wasn’t that different…”

Blake nodded, cringing and closing her eyes

“ _ All _ of us?” 

She nodded again.

“But what does me hugging you have to do with…  Ohhhh.  It’s a romantic thing?”  

Blake risked a glance at Ruby’s face.  To her surprise, she had a mildly curious expression.  “I-”  Her voice came out hoarse.  “A romantic thing?”

“The whole hugging making you all-”  Ruby waved her hand up and down in Blake’s direction and made a noise.

“You could say that.  I just-  You’re-”  

“It’s okay, Blake.  It’s not some terrible thing to like people, as far as I can tell.  You should probably talk to Velvet about it at some point though.”  

“You’re not upset?”

“Nah, why would I be?  I mean, you’re not doing anything wrong.  You just get crushes on people real easy, right?”

“But they’re supposed to go away when you get a new one.  That’s how it always works for other people.”

“Not for me?”  Ruby shrugged her shoulders and smiled.  “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a real one though.  I don’t know how it works for Yang, but she always talks about boys like they’re just some big group or whatever.”  

“She seemed pretty fixated on Nora earlier.”  

“Can we... not talk about my sister’s love life?”  For the first time, Ruby looked uncomfortable.  “It’s weird.”

Blake raised an eyebrow.

“What?  It is.”  

“Of everything we’ve been talking about, that’s what’s weird?”  Blake couldn’t help it.  She laughed out loud.

“Hey, it’s not funny!”  Ruby was smiling.

“You’re the one that brought it up.”

“Yeah, cause I was trying to help you feel better!”

A loud noise from down the corridor brought them both up short.  Team JNPR’s door had flown open, and an irate looking Ren was standing in front of it.  

“Please.  Be.  Quiet.”  He said, loud but firm.  He slowly walked back into the room and closed the door, glaring daggers at them all the while.

They stood in shock for a moment, Ruby breaking the silence first.  “I’ve never seen Ren  _ angry _ before.”  

“I didn’t know it was possible.”

“Note to self: Do not interrupt Ren’s beauty sleep.”  

“We should really be getting some sleep ourselves.” 

Ruby checked her scroll and cringed.  “Yeah.”

“Ruby.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re sure you aren’t worried about… about all this?  I don’t want to make things awkward.”

“I don’t know.  Do you need me not to hug you?”  Ruby asked, frowning.  

“It’s not…  Maybe.  I don’t know.  I just think you’re cute, Ruby.  You, and Weiss,”  She smirked a little, knowing Ruby would be uncomfortable with her next words. “and Yang.”  Sure enough, Ruby flinched slightly at hearing her sister described as ‘cute’.  “All in different ways.  But I don’t dissociate it the way everyone else seems to.  So if you aren’t comfortable with that then you shouldn’t hug me, I guess.”

Ruby shook her head.  “But what do  _ you _ need?  Is it going to make it harder for you and Velvet?”

Blake’s eyes widened.  “I don’t know.  I guess it’ll depend on how she feels about it.”   _ ‘Now there’s a conversation I’m not looking forward to.’ _

“Probably best to take it one step at a time and figure out if you guys really get along.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t be the best conversation topic for a first date.”

They started back to the dorm room, but Ruby stopped before they went inside.  “Hey, Blake?”

“Hmm?”  

“What do you want me to tell the others?”

“I’d rather not bring it up, if that’s okay.”

“Okay.  I’m not that good at keeping secrets.” 

“You don’t have to, but I’d rather tell them myself.  If I do.  I don’t think Weiss...”

“Weiss will get all offended, but she’ll be fine if you explain.  Let’s get to sleep before Ren yells at us again.”

Blake thought that Ruby might be underestimating her icy teammate’s temper, but she was too tired to argue the point.  She keyed open the door, peeking through the crack to check if their teammates were still asleep.  With a sigh of relief she let the door swing open and walked in, shedding clothing before Ruby had even shut the door.  Yang was in her usual position, one leg hanging off the side of the bed, snoring.  Weiss was lying on her side, the gentle expression on her face at odds with her usual waking one.  

Blake was already half asleep by the time Ruby clambered into her bed.  She barely heard Ruby’s whisper.  “Thanks Blake.”

“Nngh”  She grunted into her pillow.  Ruby snickering was the last thing she heard before sleep claimed her.


	17. Too Much

Yang sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.  To her surprise, she was the first one up this morning.  Usually Ruby or Weiss were up first.   _‘Guess i’m feeling better.’_  She watched the morning sun for a minute, enjoying the relative quiet.  The light snores drifting from Ruby’s bunk were the only sound.

 _‘Nothing for it but to talk to her at the gym.’_ Yang leapt from her bed, landing on the floor with a heavy _thwump_ .  She brushed out her hair, taking her time to make sure she had all the knots out.  It would be a tangled mess soon enough if they followed their usual workout routine, but it was always easier to brush out if it started neat, and besides, she wanted to look her best.   _‘Because of reasons.  Yeah.’_ She set her brush down and went to fill her bag, pausing when Weiss stirred.  

“Morning, sleepyhead.”

Weiss stretched, cracking a huge yawn.  “Morning…”  She sat up, blinking.

Yang gathered her things while Weiss watched, eyes half closed.  Slinging her full bag over a shoulder, she waved at Weiss as she left.  When Weiss just stared after her, she stopped at the door and asked “What’s up Weiss?  Usually you’d be chewing me out for something by now.”  

Weiss blinked a few times in rapid succession, then turned away and crossed her arms.  “Nothing, I’m just tired.”

“Okay.  See you at breakfast!”  With a grin and one last wave, Yang was out the door.  

Weiss relaxed but kept her eyes on the door, keeping her face carefully neutral.  If Yang had forgotten something, it wouldn’t be the first time.  When she was satisfied that Yang had gotten far enough that she would decide she could do without whatever it was she had forgotten today, Weiss dropped her gaze to her hands and let her practiced expression wilt.   _‘What are you doing, Weiss?’_ Clenching and unclenching her hands, she searched for the motivation to get up and look over her notes for the day.  It was what she usually did when she woke up before her alarm went off, but this morning she couldn’t find it in herself to care.   _‘There’s no excuse for staring at her like that.  I don’t want her to get the wrong idea.’_ The thought of Yang deducing anything from her sleep addled staring was enough to make her shudder.   _‘Even if I were going to date while I’m here, which I’m not, and even if it was going to be with a girl, which it isn’t because I would be disowned, the last person I would choose would be her.  Even if she is freakishly attractive.’_ She let out a sigh and fell back against her pillow.

 _‘Why isn’t Ruby up yet?’_  Weiss looked up at the bed hanging above her.  Though she would never admit it, right now she wished her partner was up being her usual distracting self.   _‘She’s always bouncing off the walls in the morning.  Sounds like she’s still asleep.’_ She looked across the room.  Blake was face down in her pillow.   _‘At least that’s the same as usual.’_ Weiss smirked, watching her… friend.  She could call Blake her friend, she thought.  Probably.   _‘I’m fairly sure she doesn’t actively hate me, anyway.  That’s basically the same thing.  Plus, she likes girls.  Apparently.  I’m a girl.’_  She shook her head to stop that line of thinking.   _‘I should find out who this Velvet girl is.  Make sure she’s good enough to be dating someone on my team.  Besides, if Blake likes her she’s probably worth knowing.’_

Weiss worked her way out of bed, stretching limbs sore from yesterday’s training.  She confirmed that her partner was still sleeping peacefully before pulling a book from her bag with a groan.

“No, Weiss, five more minutes…”  Ruby mumbled, curling away from the light peeking under her sheet tent and hugging her covers into a loose ball in front of her.  

“I wasn’t even trying to wake you up.”  Weiss whispered, her words ignored by the sleeping girl in front of her.  She stood and waited to see if she’d wake, her eyes straying to Ruby’s back.  Her tank top was riding up, exposing several inches of skin.  Weiss’ hand twitched before she looked away and practically ran over to her desk, slamming a book onto the tabletop and falling into her chair.

“What… Why?”  Blake was awake, and sounded very cross.  

“Why what?”  Weiss asked, her voice an octave higher than usual.

“So much noise.”  Blake mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her head.  Her hair was a mass of tangles, and she had a smear of what was probably drool across her cheek.  She was still wearing her bow.  Weiss was still too flustered to comment.  Giving Weiss several dirty looks, she slid out of bed and dragged herself into the bathroom.

Weiss cracked open her book as soon as she heard the water start running.  Five minutes later she was still reading her first paragraph.  She hung her head over the back of her chair and sighed, letting the book swing freely in her hand.   _‘Why can I never get any studying done in this room?’_  She groaned internally.  

A few seconds later an operatic voice issued from the other side of the room where her scroll was plugged in.  Sighing again, she stood and walked over to turn off her morning alarm.

 _“...A ditto i della-”_  She stopped the music with a swipe of her finger.  Turning, she let out a tiny “Eep!” when she came face to face with Ruby hanging from the side of her bed.  

“You turned it off.”  She said.  “You never turn it off before the end.”  

Weiss blinked.  “Go back-”  She couldn’t tell her to go back to sleep.  “Go get ready for-”  Blake was in the bathroom.  “Go-  Just-  Go do something!”  

“Are you okay?”  Ruby asked around a yawn.

“I’m fine!  You just surprised me.”

“Okay.”  Ruby swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched her arms.  “So what’s our schedule for today?”  

“Aren’t you supposed to know that, oh great team leader?”  

“Well yeah, but you’re always so excited about color coding everything in your little book thing.”

“It’s a planner!”

“Planner, yeah.”

Blake walked back into the room, looking far less the worse for wear but wearing a poisonous expression.  

“Blake!”  Ruby shouted.  

“Ruby.  Why.”  

“Oh, right.  Morning Blake.  Sorry.”  She trailed off into a whisper.

Blake sat on her bed, seemingly content to stare at the wall for the next half hour.

“You’d think she didn’t get any sleep.”  Weiss said, prompting a half-hearted laugh from Ruby.

“Yeah…  Hey, where’s Yang?”

“She left before you woke up.  She’s probably at the gym.”  She slid her planner from the front pocket of her bag, flicking it open to the current date in a single motion.  “We should be going as well.  Yang may be perfectly fine with skipping breakfast, but I’m not listening to all three of you moan about being hungry all morning.”  

“Sounds good!”  Ruby hopped from her bunk, leaving it swinging, and zipped around the room gathering her things for the day.  

Weiss looked up from where she had been tracing her finger along the day’s schedule just in time to see Ruby pulling her tank top over her head with one hand as she entered the bathroom.  The door shut, leaving Weiss to stare at the painted wood, frantically trying to collect her thoughts.  She realized her mouth was open and shut it.

“Those two are never going to stop doing that, are they?” Blake muttered.  Weiss flinched internally, slowly turning to face her.  Blake was also watching the bathroom door, a look of annoyance sliding from her features to be replaced with wry amusement.  

 _‘Maybe she didn’t notice.’_  

Blake turned to smirk at her, holding her gaze just a moment too long before rising and stretching.

 _‘Right.  Blake doesn’t not notice things.’_  If there was one thing Weiss had learned about her secretive teammate in the weeks they had worked together it was that Blake rarely missed a beat, even when it seemed like she was completely distracted.  Sometimes Weiss could swear she knew what was happening when she wasn’t even in the room.  Turning back to her planner with a sigh, she checked the schedule again.   _‘At least she’s capable of being discreet.  I just wish I knew where she came from.’_  

Weiss had done her research on Beacon’s applicants before arriving.  Access to the SDC records made finding thorough bios on most of the students trivial, but aside from Blake’s applicant record, there was just… nothing.  No prior student documents, no citizenship or birth documents, she wasn’t even in the medical records that the SDC definitely did not have.  Besides that, Weiss had made a point of going through the complete list of Beacon student bios after initiation, and she couldn’t remember anyone named Velvet.  Granted, she hadn’t memorized _all_ the names, being so busy starting classes, but if Yang hadn’t known who Velvet was Weiss might have wondered if she existed at all.

It ought to be suspicious enough to warrant contacting her family.  Someone mysteriously appearing without a past just screamed "assasin".  She had little doubt that someone charged with her protection was already tearing their hair out over this among many other things, but she would sooner take her chances with a trained killer than give her father’s “private security” any kind of foothold in her life.  Weiss was no stranger to the idea of people wanting to kill her, and yet... she just couldn't believe that of Blake.  Blake, the girl who was up reading in the middle of the night more often than not.  Who put effort enough into her studies that even Weiss appreciated her dedication. _‘It’s probably because I don’t want to lose such an effective team member.’_ she thought with a hollow laugh.   _‘No, that’s not fair.  Blake is… Blake cares too much.  She hides it well.  But she does.  They all do.’_

“You’re pensive this morning.”  Blake said, shaking Weiss from her musings.

 _'That’s one way to say “walking disaster”.’_ “I’m fine.”

Blake watched Weiss’ carefully blank face for a moment.  “If you need to talk, I’ll listen.”  

 _‘Dammit.’_ “We have class.”

“Later, obviously.  I know you’re not going to go to Yang or Ruby, so…”

Before Weiss could answer Ruby popped back into the room, futzing with the neck cord of her uniform.  “Ready?”  Weiss asked, eyeing her creased skirt.  She would never understand how the sisters could treat their clothes in such a way.  She hung her uniform in the closet next to Blake’s, like a civilized human being.

“Uh… Sure?”  Ruby shouldered her backpack and gave Weiss a quizzical look.  “Pretty sure you’re not though.”

Weiss blinked, glanced down at her nightgown, then dashed to the closet and yanked out her uniform before disappearing into the bathroom, doing her best to ignore Blake’s stifled chuckling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one just kept... getting... longer. Poor Weiss can't catch a break.


	18. Just Can't Spit it Out

Yang pushed open the doors, stopping for a moment to take a deep breath.  The familiar smell of the gym helped to calm her nerves, and she strode off towards the locker rooms, an almost manic glint in her eye.

_ ‘Alright.  Just got to tell Nora I like her, she’ll fall madly in love with me and we’ll have dozens of slightly murderous children.  Nothing to it.’ _

Throwing her bag into her locker, she changed and stalked into the main gym.   _ ‘Now where is she?’ _  Scanning the exercise machines, Yang frowned.  Nora was nearly always on the ellipticals when she came in in the morning.   _ ‘What if she’s not here today?’ _

“Yang!  My workout buddy, you came!”  Yang was suddenly tackled from behind, barely managing to stay on her feet.   _ ‘Nora!’ _

“H-hey, Nora!  Long time no see!”

“We just saw each other yesterday, silly!”

“Yeah… Hey, can I-”

“Last one on the machines is a rotten egg!”  Nora took off, leaving Yang sputtering.  She stood there for a moment before running after her.  “Nora!  Wait a minute!”

Nora skidded to a halt.  Several gym patrons were watching the exchange with mild curiosity.

Yang ignored them, walking over to stand in front of Nora, who looked a bit confused.  Yang took a deep breath and looked her in the eye.  “Look, I know you like Ren, but-”  

Nora gasped dramatically before dragging Yang around a corner out of sight and wrapping a conspiratorial arm around her shoulder.  “Who told you?”  She whispered, her eyes darting back and forth as if the informant might be lurking in a back hallway of the gym.

“No one told me.”  Yang said, far too aware of Nora’s proximity.  “I just kinda figured it out from the super obvious hints you drop, like, all the time.”  Hearing Nora confirm it was still harder than she had expected.  It wasn’t like it was a surprise, but there had still been that small sliver of hope…

“Is it really that obvious?”

Yang nodded.

“Then why doesn’t he  _ do _ anything?”

“Uh…”  Yang floundered.  Playing relationship counselor was not something she had meant to sign up for.  “Could be lots of reasons.  Maybe he’s just really dense about this kind of thing.  Maybe he thinks you’re too good for him.  Maybe he thinks you like someone else.  Maybe he’s like me and just can’t spit it out.”

“You can’t spit it out?  Wait, I’m confused.”  

Yang could feel her temperature rising.  She struggled out from under Nora’s arm and backed up a few paces, taking deep breaths as she did so.  

“Yang?”  Nora arched an eyebrow, crossing her arms

Yang swallowed.   _ ‘This would be so much easier if she would stop being so darned cute.’ _  “So you know how I’ve been kind of… off?  The past few days?”

“It’s been longer than that.”

“I didn’t think you’d noticed.”

“I didn’t.  But once I did, I knew it had been happening for a while.  Yang, what’s wrong?”

Yang almost melted at the concern on Nora’s face.  

“I-  I-  You-”   _ ‘Crap.’   _ “I…  Think you… Are…” 

Nora’s concern faded, replaced with a downcast expression.  “It was something I did, wasn’t it?  Ren always tells me to try to be less…  _ Nora _ with people I don’t know.  Well, he doesn’t, but he gives me this  _ look _ and-”

“Gosh, Nora, no.  That’s not it at all.  No, you’re super great, it’s me that’s messed up.”

“What?  But you’re… you!  You’re all… Yangey.”  Nora waved her arms

“No see, I’m the problem here.  If I could just tell you I had a huge crush on you it would probably be… fine… uh...”  

They stared at each other for a moment.

“Or we could just pretend I never said that and I could go crawl under a rock and die!  See ya!”  Yang turned on her heel, planning to make a beeline for the door.  She hadn’t gotten more than a few meters before Nora caught her arm.  

“Oh, no you don’t.”  Nora spun her around so she could look her in the eye, squinting slightly.  “You like me.”  

“Uh…  Yes.  Is that okay?” Yang said, a spark of hope blossoming in her chest.

“I… don’t know.”  She paused.  “I like Ren.”

“Yeah, I figured.”  Yang muttered, looking away.  She pulled halfheartedly at her arm, but Nora kept a firm grip.  “Look… I…”

“I don’t  _ not  _ like you.”  

Nora was still watching Yang closely, and choosing her words with far more care than Yang had ever seen.  She studied Yang’s face, holding her gaze.  

They stood like that for a while, both of the energetic girls as still as statues.  Yang was struck by just how blue the other girl’s eyes were.  Her mind was filled with a low buzzing noise.  She couldn’t seem to form a coherent thought.   _ ‘She…’  ‘What…’  ‘What does…’   _ “What does that mean?” she heard herself saying.

Nora frowned at the worried tone of Yang’s voice.  “It means I-” she shouted before stopping short and taking a deep breath.

Yang’s breath hitched.  Nora never stopped herself mid-rant.

Nora continued, her forced calm straining her voice.  “I never thought about it.  You.  Like that.”

Yang’s face fell.

“I’m sorry!”  She was shouting again.  “You’re Yang!  You talk about boys all the time!  Well not all the time, but you do talk about them.  And then you do that thing with your eyebrows!”

Yang’s eyebrows climbed up behind her bangs.  

“Not that thing, but kind of like that.  Anyway, I’m surprised.  You... like me.  Yang likes me.”  She looked away, holding a clenched fist to her chest and smiling a little.  “Wow.”

“Is that… okay?”

“Sure!  Why wouldn’t it be?  I have no idea how to feel about it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t okay.”

Yang mulled this over, the beginnings of a smile showing on her face.  “Thanks Nora.”

Nora shrugged.  “No problem.  Want to hit the machines?”

Yang nodded.  She felt oddly numb.   _ ‘At least she’s not upset.  What happens now though?’ _

Nora bounded off, Yang following close behind.  She clambered onto an elliptical, tweaking some settings and settling into a rhythm.  “I always think better when I’m moving.”  

“I get that.”

They worked for a while in what would have been comfortable silence, but Yang’s mind was stuck looping the conversation they had just had in between sneaking glances at the other girl.  After working up a sweat on the cardio machines they moved on to weights.  Yang found herself carefully studying the creases on her workout mat.  The alternative was staring at Nora’s arms, shining with sweat as her muscles worked to pump a pair of weights larger than her head.

Realizing she was staring again, Yang looked away.   It was fortunate that she was already sweating from her workout.  She doubled down on her lunges, biting her lip and staring straight ahead.  She heard Nora drop her weights onto the mat, barely keeping herself from turning to stare again.  When Nora’s breathing slowed and the sounds of her exertion didn’t pick back up again though, Yang couldn’t resist another look.

She was surprised to see Nora watching her, the look on her face disturbingly similar to the one she wore when facing a fresh stack of pancakes.  

“Uh, Nora?”

“Yeah?”  

“You’re kinda staring.”

“Yup!”

“You uh… Like what you see?”  

“Yep!”

Yang stalled out, derailed by the straightforward answer.  When she found the part of herself that made words again, all she could come up with was “Really?”.  

“Yep!  The jury is in, and they have decided that you are incredibly hot.  But I’m still not sure what to do about that.”  A confused look passed across Nora’s face, gone as quickly as it had come.  She shrugged.  “I don’t think dates are something I’m up for at the moment.  Unless they’re the fruity kind.  With the wrinkles, not like a  _ fruity _ date-date, that would just be weird.”

Yang stared on as Nora went into a full-blown rant about the relative value of fruit to the dating process.   _ ‘Hoo boy.  What have I gotten myself into?’   _ “Nora?”  She interrupted before Nora could really get into full swing, her need to know too great.  The other girl paused and cocked her head, blinking twice.  

“Yes?” 

“Is that a no then?  To the date thing.  I guess I never really asked, but…”  Nora was frowning, Yang couldn’t keep her disappointment from her voice.  “I do want to date you.”  

“If it is, are you going to be a sad panda again?”

Yang cringed.  “I…  Maybe for a little while.”  

“Then I’ll-”  

“Wait!”  Yang interrupted again.  “Don’t.  Don’t say you’ll go out with me if it’s just a pity thing.”

Nora pouted.  “But I don’t want you to be sad.”

“And I don’t want anyone to have to deal with it.  I never wanted anyone to worry about me.  Sometimes we don’t get what we want.”

“I don’t mind worrying about you, Yang.”  She reached out to put her hand on Yang’s shoulder, but pulled back when Yang flinched.  “You’re my friend.” 

Yang dropped her eyes to the floor, unable to maintain eye contact.  “I know.  Look, I-  Can we just-”  She took a deep breath, then threw her head back and closed her eyes, blowing it out slowly.  “I really don’t want to ruin this thing we had going.” she told the ceiling.  “It’s been really great having someone who pushed me in the gym.”

“Then let’s not worry about it!”  Nora shouted, throwing herself back into her workout.  

“Yeah.”  Yang muttered.  “Yeah, we’ll just do that…”


	19. At the Firing Range

The sounds of gunfire echoed off the high white wall lining the rear of the firing range, complemented by the mechanical whirring and clunking of the skeet machines.  Team RWBY was lined up alongside their peers, taking turns blasting chunks of clay out of the sky.  

Ruby stopped firing as the rubble from her last target fell to the ground.  "Yang, your turn."  

"Yep!"  Yang vaulted the small barrier into the range and tagged Ruby out.  She watched Weiss blast a disk from the sky with lightning as Ruby fiddled with the skeet machine. 

Marksmanship classes had roughly one skeet thrower for every two students, meaning they took turns shooting.  Who would shoot with Weiss had been a point of contention during their first few classes on the range, her slower firing rate making the next person in line wait roughly twice as long.  Though Ruby had initially insisted that partners had to work together, they had eventually settled into rotating who waited for Weiss.

"Ready Yang?"  Ruby yelled over the cacophony.  

Yang threw a thumbs up over her shoulder, not wanting to turn around and risk eye contact with her teammates.  So far she'd managed to avoid talking to them about her flubbed attempt to ask Nora out, and she really wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.  The more she thought about what had happened, the more confused and angry she got.  The sound of grenades accompanied by boisterous laughter from a few firing lines over wasn't helping.  

' _ Let's not worry about it?  Right, fine, I'll just not worry about it.  Sure.  Poof, gone, nothing to worry about here. _ '  She watched the first disk fly and took three shots in quick succession, each of which flew wide.  The disk hit the ground and rolled to a stop at the base of the tall earthen hill at the back of the range, where she vaporized it with her fourth shot.  

' _ Of course she's got an unrequited crush on Ren.  Why would I ever have thought that she didn't?  It's plain as day, but I just had to get my hopes up 'cause Blake said they weren't together. _ '  The second disk flew overhead, and Yang wasted six shots before she brought it down.  

' _ It's not like there was really any doubt, and then- _ ' Yang reloaded her gauntlets and let the old casings drop to the ground, not caring that she was wasting ammo.  Anything to keep her hands busy, to distract her from the tempest growing in her mind.  ' _ -then I had to go and make her feel so bad for me that she was going to drop everything and date me out of pity.  Way to go, me.  Really top notch job on that one.   _ '  She'd been standing there staring at the sky for a full minute before she turned around.  "What are you waiting for?!" She shouted, immediately cringing at the anger in her tone, doubly so when she saw her sister's worried look.

Drawing a hand across her face, she closed her eyes and forced herself to take even breaths for a few seconds before tromping over to where Ruby was standing.  “Sorry, I’m… Sorry.”  

“It’s okay.”  Ruby leaned over the wall to give her sister a quick hug, concern on her face.  “We can talk later?”  

“I… Yeah, okay.  Just give me some space ‘till then, okay?”  She offered up a small smile.  “Not that you weren’t, but I just… Ugh.”

“I get it.  You want to finish these?”  She nudged the pile of skeet with her foot.  

“Yeah.”  Yang walked back to her firing position, trying to ignore the curious glance Blake was giving her.

‘ _ This isn’t Ruby’s problem. _ ’  She dropped into a ready stance, the movement as natural as breathing.  ‘ _ She’ll make it her problem though.  Same as I would if she were having relationship issues. _ ’  She smiled to herself, certain it would be a while before she had to deal with  _ that _ .  ‘ _ I guess that isn’t so bad. _ ’  “Ready!”  She shouted.

The disk flew overhead, and she blew it from the sky with one clean shot.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve never gone skeet shooting, so if you have then please let me know if I’ve botched anything.
> 
> Short chapter, just because this has been sitting in my draft doc for far too long and I need to kick myself into posting _something_. Yang/Nora are probably going to have most of the spotlight for the next few before we get back to the others, but we'll get to Blake and Velvet's date here eventually.


	20. Maiming Between Friends

Nora, blissfully unaware of Yang’s inner turmoil, was having the time of her life as usual.  

“Ren, watch this!” she yelled, unloading the last of her clip downrange.  The shells burst one after another in a graceful arc.

Jaune lowered his loaner shotgun to watch the series of explosions.  “Nora, you missed all of- Yipe!” he was cut short when Nora’s final clay pigeon embedded itself in the wall near his head.  

“Aww, I missed…” 

"Nora, please don't maim our teammates."

"Aw, that's no fun.  What's a little maiming between friends?  Right Jaune?"

She clapped him on the shoulder as she walked by, before hopping the barrier with a "hup!" and tagging Pyrrha in, who was valiantly trying to hide her smirk.  Nora sauntered over to Ren as Pyrrha got into position, leaning into his side so that he had to switch hands to pull the launch lever.  

"Sooooo... How is our fearless leaders aim today?"  

"He's improving."

Jaune’s next shot went wide, and he nearly dropped his gun.  

Sensing Nora's skeptical look, Ren retorted "Slowly.  You may have frightened him."

"Gotta keep the boys frightened of me, Ren!  Can't have them getting complacent!  They won’t survive the winter if they don't know how to fend for themselves!"

Ren shook his head and sighed instead of trying to answer.  Nora walked over to the skeet machine and gave it a light kick, letting out an "mhmph" when the whole thing rattled.  

"Couldn't they get automatic ones of these?  It's so boring having to sit here and pull the lever for half the class."  She pulled a leg up towards her back in a stretch, slapping the release lever with her other hand when Pyrrha gave a thumbs up.

"I imagine there’s a lecture about team bonding that you could get, were you to ask."

"Why does team bonding have to be so dull?  I suppose it's not so bad since you're here though."  She turned her head to watch Ren, letting her lever slapping arm go on autopilot.  He was watching Jaune intently, doubtless taking mental notes to discuss with him after practice.  The rest of JNPR had quickly realized that Jaune was far behind in nearly every class, and had pulled together to get him up to speed as best they could.  It was frustrating work, as he knew so little of the basics that it was hard to believe he had made it through combat school.  At least he was eager to improve.

Nora let her gaze linger, yammering on about nothing in particular until the whirr-clunk of the skeet machine stopped clunking.  She hefted the next stack of disks into the machine and swapped places with Pyrrha again.

"Don't let me forget to tell you about-" She stopped herself.  "Never mind".  Cocking her launcher she shouted, "Ready Pyrrha!"

She wasn't sure why she was avoiding the subject with Ren, not really.  It wasn't that she didn't want to tell him, or the others.  She was flattered really, Yang was drop dead gorgeous and brilliant in combat, and the fact that she was apparently into her filled Nora with a nervous excitement, thrumming from her chest down to her toes.  Nora had crushed her initial thought that Yang might have been toying with her.  She had promised Ren that she wouldn't assume the worst of people's intentions, and if anyone deserved the benefit of that doubt it was Yang and her sister.  She had seemed so  _ nervous _ too.  Genuine.  Nora wanted to tell her teammates.  She was going to explode if she kept this from Ren any longer, it was just...

She had spent so long dancing away from the subject of romance when talking to Ren, apparently it was second nature in general now.  Not that she was ever subtle by any stretch of the imagination, she knew that much now that she'd spent a while around others her own age, but when it came down to  _ just spitting it out _ , like Yang said...  She couldn't .  She just kept talking, kept filling the silence with words, any words, anything so she wouldn't have to confront what she so desperately wanted to say.

‘ _ I love you, Ren. _ ’

It was so easy in her head.  Outside, her thoughts flew out the window while her mouth went on at a mile a minute, picking right up where she had left off after the next set of clay pigeons were nothing but rubble.  

"Anyway, do you think foxes make that noise because they're happy or sad?  It sounds so much like laughing but I think they're probably angry 'cause most animals don't get so loud unless they're mad at each other."

"I don't know if foxes make that much noise, Nora."

"They do!  It's so cute!  You'd better believe me, I showed you that sloth video.  I totally called it."

"Did you -"  Ren was interrupted as a panting Jaune struggled his way over the range barrier  

"How-  How'd I-"  He took a moment to lean on his knees and breathe.  "How’d I do?"

You managed to hit slightly over half of them."  Ren said with a smile.  "Better than last practice."

"Really.?  I thought for sure I did worse."

"Well..." Ren looked a bit sheepish.  "Your kill percentage was higher."

"So I managed to graze a bunch of them.  Great."

Ren clapped him on the shoulder and gave an encouraging look before vaulting the barrier and taking his position on the range.  Looking over to see Nora lazily slapping the lever of her skeet machine, he gulped slightly before loading and beginning to do the same.  

"Soooooo...  Read any good comics lately?"

"Are we just going to ignore the whole ‘trying to hit me with the disc’ thing?"

"I guess?  It wasn't a big deal."  Nora shrugged.  "I just wanted to see how well I could bank it, I’d noticed them altering course when I missed and... well your face was the obvious target!"

"You couldn't use the targets sitting on the range?"

"Of course not, silly.  Those aren't the right angle at all!"

Jaune made a frustrated noise.  

"If it helps, you can try to bank your next set at me if you like.  It can be like double target practice!"

"Gee, thanks."  Jaune hefted his loaner rifle."I'll be sure to do that with all the concussive force this thing puts out.  Why do I even have to do this when my weapon doesn’t have a gun on it?"  

"What if you lose your sword?  Or you have to use someone else's weapon, or you fight someone whose semblance is turning swords into guns?"  

"I think the first couple might have been good reasons."  Jaune said with a sigh.  

"Or if they transformed everyone's weapons into things that were the opposite of what you were used to, or they dilated time so that nothing really worked except bullets.  Ooh, I think I heard about an upperclassman who could do something with time, I wonder if we could get them to let us try that?" 

"Sure, Nora."  Jaune was watching Pyrrha decimate her flight of clay pigeons, bringing them down with precision despite the fact that Nora was hammering the lever as fast as the mechanism would let her.  Ren was barely halfway done when Pyrrha attached her spear to it’s magnetic holster and turned back, the remains of her last pigeon falling to the ground behind her.  

“Someday you’re going to miss one, and I’m going to go buy a lottery ticket.”  Nora said as she hopped the fence.  Pyrrha’s smile was her only answer.  

Nora was just finishing her set when she was hit with a spatter of gravel from Jaune’s side of the range.  He was out of position at the far end, and she caught him pumping his arm down and making a fist before turning away and pretending not to look.

Rolling her eyes and swapping with Pyrrha again, Nora noted that the stack of clay pigeons was nearly gone.  

"We're out again."  She hefted the last of them into the machine and eyed the still substantial stack next to Ren.  "Sooooo.  Ren, old friend.  You don't think you could hook a girl up with some extra disks, couldja?"  

He caught her eye and smiled.

"Sweet.  I'd hate for Pyrrha's practice to get cut short.  You know how she can get when she doesn't get to show off for Jaune for as long as she’d like to."

Ren's eyes flicked to their teammates, each focussed on the task at hand, then back to Nora, his stare level.  

"Pfff, fine."  Nora rolled her eyes.  "S'not like it'd do anything anyway.  They're going to be ignoring each other forever."  Her slamming of the lever grew a slightly more forceful.  "Dancing around their obvious feelings, never really talking about them until some hapless girl comes and throws a huge wrench into things, ruining their perfectly happy lovesickness that they were doing just fine with, making things all confusing.  I'm sure they'll be fine without me going on at them about how-" she gave such a violent twist to the lever that the entire metal bar snapped off in her hand.  "-obvious...  Huh.  Oops."

Ren was staring at her in alarm, his own skeet machine forgotten.  Jaune just looked relieved to have a quick reprieve, but Pyrrha was already jogging back to see why her environment was suddenly target free.

"Are you okay Nora?"

"Yes.  I’m... I'm fine, just..."  She sniffled once, before scrubbing her face with the back of her hand and taking a gulping breath.  "I'm fine."  Her customary smile and chipper tone was back, just in time for Pyrrha to hop the fence and take stock of the situation.

"Are we out of skeet already?" 

"Yep!  Ren said we Could use some of his though."  

"You can use all of it.  Nora and I need to leave a little early."  

"Oh.  Um, okay."  Pyrrha glanced briefly at the bored fourth year sitting at the end of the range, then back to the others with curiosity in her eyes, but before she could question Ren he had taken Nora by the hand and was pulling her towards the exit.

Caught off guard by the sudden feeling of his hand in hers, even through her gloves, it took her a moment to exclaim "Hey!  We don't-  I said I'm fine!"  

Ren turned and dropped her hand, eyeing her with a raised eyebrow.  When her expression faltered for a moment he turned and kept walking.  This time she followed, sullenly wishing she had just hung on to his hand.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If nothing else, this chapter should really have taught me to spell the word ~~pidgeon~~ pigeon properly. =_=
> 
> And yes, sloths [really do sound like that](https://youtu.be/_FVXJnYMG1Y?t=44).


End file.
